Abstract

Collar Weights - Artist Talk

Alexandra Gillespie, Somaya Langley

Collar Weights is a mixed media installation combining audio, electronics and fabric in order to address notions of notions of power and control, social stratification and status through the object of the collar and its role in society. The collar is also employed as a means of describing emotional states, such as being “hot under the collar”, other events like “getting collared” (marriage) or “being collared” for a crime.

Collar Weights gathers together memory and emotion, enhancing the physical space with imagined scenes associated with the collar’s owner, conjured up by the sounds of their voices. Utilising both old and new technologies, the work brings together many locations and realities into a single space, place and time. Acquired from twenty significant people (associated with either artist) is a single collar from a shirt, dress or blouse, along with an oral history interview retelling stories or emotions associated with the object.

Suspended in a “V” formation, the work references both a sight line and a flocking formation – representing social groups and the interconnectedness between individuals. Inside each of the collars are electroluminescent panels illuminating short printed text, based phrases or aphorisms that become visible through the fabric as an audience member brushes against a collar. The sound field comprises of spoken oral histories relating to the word illuminated in the collar and associated with the collar itself. Interspersed between these are other idiosyncratic sounds that evoke an image of an individual, such as breathing, sighs and gasps. Depending on the order in which collars are activated, this subtly affects the overall sound world.

Known for creating an immersive experience, surround sound augmented by the actual (well loved or hated) collars provides a personalised experience for the audience member, as if they were getting to know the virtual individuals represented in the work. Audience members move through the installation, their position affecting their experience of the work, and of the remembered reality they find themselves in.