DEAD RECKONING
Immersive Installation
Solo Exhibition, Eastside Projects, 2024
Images: Ashley Carr / Irina Mackie / Beth Kettel
“A reckoning, a species in transition, a weather pain, an eyebrow raised, in vain, a fear in a face, a decision in the dark, a shadow, a long now, a cold front, an icy fang, an ear burning, a side-eye, a canine tooth, a pack of dogs, a brute, a minute newt, an amphibian’s spiritual ascension, a shadow of a doubt, a hunting, a haunting, a reckoning awaiting, a magical thought, a no body, an intellectual overdose, an inside, out, a pig’s ear, a slapping of matter against matter, a knee hitting the ground, a sound of bodies breaking into each other, microscopically, an infinite merging, a bending towards, a flame, a nobody squatting in the quantum, a reckoning awakening, a being, a being beside itself, being besides yourself, awake, a vague pain, a weather vane, a season drifting out of place, an eye in a storm, a weathered feature, an ice cube drowning itself, a puddle, a body of water, a liquid limb, a wake, a resonance, a personal myth, a clue in a cloud, a collective sigh, a long distance call, a coincidence, a live event, a tense, a present inside a ribcage, a hoof, a beak out of sync, a heart out of time, aloof, a fated sky, an air, an ear telling an eye where to look, a lie flying high, a downwind stink, a disgusting thought, a merging with the infinite, a teetering life, a body breaking, a being besides itself, a being out of time, a dead reckoning.
Beth Kettel’s work encompasses sculpture, moving-image, writing, sound and performance. For her exhibition at Eastside Projects she is developing a new sculptural installation with reactive materials, which will explore internal and external navigation and the ways our internal worlds are communicated, translated and distorted externally and vice versa.
This work has been informed by recent residencies at Launchpad LaB, Champagne-Mouton, France and Fieldwork, Wales 2023.”
In navigation, Dead Reckoning involves estimating a current position based on a past position (factoring speed, time, and direction of travel). A Reckoning is a time when somebody’s current position is judged based on their past actions (factoring time and unpleasant truths). The work explores internal and external navigation in this time of personal, spiritual & global reckoning.
The work exists in three states - the lower, dream and shadow state. The installation physically changes state with programmed lights, lighting the inside and outside of the hanging at intervals, obscuring and revealing details in the work at different points.
With special thanks to all the team at Eastside Projects; Tom Harris with sound; extended techincal support - Suzi Osborn with installation support & Mike McShane with arduino coding
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