INTERFACE
Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
REVIEW
Breaking the surface
Bridgwater Docks, Somerset
3, 4 and 5 May
Reviewed by: Stephanie Delcroix
As the sun sets on Bridgwater docks, people are starting to gather. Something is brewing. Metallic sounds diffuse dimly from open windows – a specially-recorded track played back obligingly by local people from their nearby apartments, cars and boats.
Above the water, spasms of light single out familiar artefacts suspended above the surface: shopping trolleys, bicycles, a wheelbarrow. Five lights stop; the objects seem to rest on the surface of the water. One light starts. Now illuminated, a decayed iron gate emerges from the darkness, heavy and lugubrious yet strangely inviting. Three lights enter the game. They chase each other across the surface of the water. The intangible tangles of light echo the former liveliness of the place.
The docks, historically a lifeline for the Bridgwater economy, now lie dormant, a receptacle for the community's discarded clutter. For three nights, artist Michael Pinsky brought this wreckage back from the depths, using the water's surface as a stage for their contemplation. Rusty, unable to recover their erstwhile functionality and accompanied by their own soundtrack – generated by samples from the artefacts played as instruments – the effect resembled an industrial mix of gamelan percussion and whales' plaintive signals.
The objects were neglected, like the docks that once engulfed them. Working with local people and resources, Pinsky revived the artefacts to confront the audience. Reactions have been divided: some recognise objects once thrown into the water and saw only dredged refuse; others were seduced by the aesthetic of decay. This debris was destined to be hidden, a feeling of discomfort results from its unveiling. Pinsky's temporary work – the forerunner to a permanent installation he will site on Bridgwater docks – points to the growing malaise of society's wasteful consumption, challenging our collective appreciation of the acceptable.
Writer detail:
STEPHANIE DELCROIX
is an art historian who lives in London.
Venue detail:
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