Artspace

There are no words

Eugenia Raskopolous

Exhibition Dates
22 September - 15 October 2005

In the centre of Artspace’s vast gallery, transparent walls–floor to ceiling–block off most of the access and form an imposing block of space, filled with smoke, across which flares of red particulate matter track erratically at speed.

Overview

We're in a region beyond speech, where there are no words, where there cannot be any words. There is only affect; consciousness gagged, choking down on a response which it will never articulate as such.

Eugenia Raskopoulos has put us in the dark. In the centre of Artspace’s vast gallery, transparent walls–floor to ceiling–block off most of the access and form an imposing block of space, filled with smoke, across which flares of red particulate matter track erratically at speed. Confined to the margins, seemingly protected by transparent walls, the viewer cannot make anything out. The red signaling, perhaps constitutive of remnants of a code, confound with smoke. Forming a kind of sub-language, the accompanying soundtrack wails as if particulate matter itself was hurting - or hurtling - panic stricken. In this dark place, alternately abjected by low frequency rumblings, which shake the resonant core of the viewer's body, pulsatile flashes of red seague with siren-like higher sonic registers.