How we experience the animal
14 January - 25 February 2012
Ark-Art, Bexhill-on-sea
James Arguile / Rachel Arguile / Lee Broughall / Susan Jane Dunford / Fashion Vacuum / Carl Gent / Timothy Holt / Ruby Manson / Miles Umney
Eight young artists based in Bexhill-on-sea, Sussex, and the wider South East region present a range of works in sculpture, film, painting, drawing, photography and metalwork.
A Private View with refreshments will be held in the gallery on Saturday 14 January, 7-9pm. The night will also double up as a launch event for Fashion Vacuum, a new online magazine documenting emerging anti-currents in urban cloth. The exhibiting artists' outfits for the night will be curated by Fashion Vacuum.
"Some Hindus have an elephant to show. No one here has ever seen an
elephant. They bring it at night to a dark room.
One by one, we go into the dark and come out saying how we experience the
animal.
One of us happens to touch the trunk. "A water-pipe kind of creature."
Another, the ear. "A very strong, always moving back and forth, fan-animal."
Another, the leg. "I find it still, like a column on a temple."
Another touches the curved back. "A leathery throne."
Another, the cleverest, feels the tusk. "A rounded sword made of porcelain."
He's proud of his description.
Each of us touches one place and understands the whole in that way.
The palm and the finger feeling in the dark are how the senses explore the
reality of the elephant.
If each of us were to hold a candle there, and if we went in together, we could
see it."
Rumi, 13th Century
Translated by Coleman Banks
Related images
Credit Lee Broughall