{"id":406,"date":"2018-07-11T11:29:29","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T11:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/?p=406"},"modified":"2018-07-11T11:43:21","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T11:43:21","slug":"somewhere-in-between-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/somewhere-in-between-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Somewhere in Between – Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Somewhere in Between: Four Collaborations, Wellcome Collection, Euston Road, London, 8 March-27 August 2018<\/p>\n

Sally O’Reilly<\/a>, Lecturer, Creative Writing<\/p>\n

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‘Under’: Martina Amati and Kevin Fong. Courtesy of The Wellcome Collection. Used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence<\/p><\/div>\n

I walk into a black box, disorientated for a moment as the space resolves itself. Giant blue screens show human shapes dancing on tightropes, strange sub-aqua acrobats. Sliding down against one dark wall, I take out my notebook and write in the darkness, wondering if by doing this I am rendering the experience of being here inauthentic. Over-thinking, under-feeling, creating responses that sound coherent when in reality I\u2019m confused. There is a sound track which has a rhythm of breathing, suddenly interrupted by a tannoy announcement from Reception \u2013 the ‘Teeth’ tour commences shortly. I am here, but should I be?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The \u2018Somewhere in Between\u2019 exhibition at London\u2019s Wellcome Collection<\/a> is described by the Londonist as \u2018wonderfully immersive\u2019 and yet for me its reach and diversity make it a curiously distracting experience. Four collaborations between artists and scientists have created work which explores ideas relating to HIV, food production, sensory perception and the potential of the human body. There is a 54-page booklet providing copious background information, and yet somehow I feel lost.<\/p>\n

Given that there are fine distinctions between definitions of \u2018multidisciplinarity\u2019,\u2018 interdisciplinarity\u2019 and even \u2018transdisciplinarity\u2019, the title \u2018Somewhere in Between\u2019 is usefully vague. Outside in Euston Road, the temperature is close to 30 degrees. Inside the building, there are expensive books, delicious cakes, metropolitan cool.<\/p>\n

The figures now flit against the turquoise blue. In the installation ‘Under’ artist Martina Arnati and anaesthetist Kevin Fong present an undersea vista in which free divers \u2013 diving without breathing apparatus \u2013 seem to inhabit a different world. I remember an Oscar Wilde story about a pearl diver who dies after bringing a pearl to the surface<\/a>. The three screens are all different \u2013 I twist and turn to look at them. More visitors filter in, black silhouettes against the blue.<\/p>\n

Next door, \u2018Alien Sex Club’, John Walter\u2019s collaboration with scientist Alison Rodger, is set up in a maze that feels like a 1980s party. The harsh subject matter \u2013 attitudes to HIV \u2013 is offset by the bright and garish colours, the vaguely party atmosphere. It\u2019s another world again. There is a set of Tarot cards \u2013 I\u2019d like to look more closely \u2013 but a herd of tourists are standing in the way. Should a reviewer be a curious mind on a stick, channelling responses? I\u2019m feeling dizzy, and retreat.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sire\u2019 is the work of artist Maria McKinney and scientists Michael Doherty and David MacHugh. Eight bulls have been photographed, each magnificent and solitary, like portraits by George Stubbs<\/a>.\u00a0 They stare massively at the camera, monsters of testosterone, small eyes glinting with malign intelligence. They are astonishing creatures, emanating violent rage. McKinney has made sculptures from woven semen straws, which are used for artificial insemination, and each bull carries one of these on its back. I\u2019m wondering what this is telling me. The flimsy, coloured structures might be a metaphor for extrinsic art, the add-on \u2018nice to have\u2019. Each bull has a nose ring, its minder holding it at a distance with\u00a0 a metal rod.<\/p>\n

And finally, two films by artist Daria Martin and scientist Michael Banissy: \u2018Sensory Tests at the Threshold\u2019. I watch these before reading about them, baffled, intrigued. A woman is told to say which cheek is being patted, left or right, and the sound track melds her robotic responses with various peculiar sounds \u2013 no tannoy interruption this time. A hi-fi speaker is placed before her, then a lamp, finally a red-lipped young man. She is distracted by him, loses the thread. The second film is longer, there seems to be a story, there are slatted blinds casting a strange light on the face of a Hispanic woman, some sort of tension. I remember when they used to show two Tarkovsky<\/a> films in a row at the Ritzy in Brixton, you would emerge into the light of late afternoon barely knowing your own name.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, I go to the caf\u00e9. Someone has spilled black coffee all over the service area. Eventually, I am given my pot of Earl Grey and a tiny chocolate brownie on a blue patterned plate. I sit among the cool people. Art and science, collaboration and conversation. It\u2019s the eyes of the bulls that linger in my mind, that savage dignity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Somewhere in Between: Four Collaborations, Wellcome Collection, Euston Road, London, 8 March-27 August 2018 Sally O’Reilly, Lecturer, Creative Writing I walk into a black box, disorientated for a moment as the space resolves itself. Giant blue screens show human shapes … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":430,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions\/430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}