…and the stage darkens (or this voice is a big whale)

Laure Genillard is pleased to present …and the stage darkens (or this voice is a big whale), a group exhibition of seven artists brought together to consider the role sensory perception plays within an encounter.

“…And the stage darkens”, is a recurring stage direction lifted from a farce by Peter Shaffer called ‘Black Comedy’. The play begins with characters interacting in total darkness. We soon learn however that this is in fact the light. As a power-cut kills the electricity, the stage is simultaneously illuminated. The actors from then on cannot ‘see’ when the lights are on. This inversion of sensory experience becomes a catalyst for the narrative to unfold giving the audience a privileged position of being able to see in the dark as they watch the characters grope their way through the inferred black. As the characters dance their way through the choreographed proprioception, the audience understands the sensory stage directions as a further character propelling the plot.

The phenomenon of proprioception can be described as the awareness of ones own body in relation to itself and to the objects around it. Our invitation to these seven artists, whose work within the context of this proposal engages and isolates the particularities of sensory experience, offers a possibility of proprioception through the relationships that are set up between each piece and the viewer. Much like the protagonists in Black Comedy and in an attempt to acknowledge the performative aspects of staging an exhibition, the possibility of proprioception is questioned once the exhibition is activated by an encounter.

With grateful acknowledgement of generous loans from Lisson Gallery, London, MOT International, London and Holger Priess Galerie, Hamburg.