Stories written in relation to earlier works
Berlin Projection Series
DIVIDE and RULE
She had been at Loughborough University at one of those conferences, where the air was thick with talk about
creativity, cognition and other heady topics. She had been asked to exhibit some practical work which she thought was a good idea since it might place her written paper in a real context. She had chosen to show the pieces, 'Between Theory and Practice I and II'. When she returned to London she had to go to an address in South London to pick up the piece. It had been kindly brought back by another artist at the conference. In
conversation with him, it transpired that he liked the work and suggested that she get in touch with a young English artist, Jessica Jenkins, who lived and worked in Berlin, and who was organising an exhibition for July 1994 of European womens' work. She wrote to Jessica who responded quickly. The idea was exciting—an outdoor projection of images to be held on a summer night in July 1994, at the Tacheles, Prenzlaur Berg. As it had happened she had been selected to show work in Kunstbrucke 2 in May 1994, also in Prenzlaur Berg, organised by the Cafe Gallery in London and the Kulturamt Mitte and supported by the British Council. Three English artists had been chosen by critic Sacha Craddock and artist Darrell Viner to show in Berlin and the following year there would be a return exhibition of young German artists in London. Jessica invited her to submit work for the project which was to be called Women Light Up The Night. She set about a new piece of work which she felt might continue the story on from the 'dummies' series. But what to do? If the Pacifier and Pacified Series had highlighted and questioned notions of disabling - what about enabling? Divide And Rule came about as a result of reflecting upon implements which might simultaneously and either directly or indirectly both enable and disable. Knife, key and corkscrew. Each item is open to usage and abusage. Colour had begun to play an important role in her work since she had worked with computers and in this case the colour was codified. Yellow, Cyan and Magenta were used respectively. Divide, And Rule was a three part 35mm transparency sequence and was selected for the exhibition. She went to Berlin for the Kunstbrucke 2 exhibition. One response to the dummies was intriguing. She was engaged in conversation on the opening night by a German photographer. He conjectured, that in the light of the Wall having recently come down, for him the dummies represented an invasion by the West and if this was the case, where or what was the vulva. The question and the discussion which ensued, continues to engross her. She suspected that this issue was not specifically pertinent to the recent history of Germany
He would have wait and see if Divide And Rule threw any light on the case
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Knife, Key, Corkscrew
35mm transparencies
Copyright © 2004 A Eames
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