Play It As It Lays

The research focused on how we can use a dynamic form of animated projection and an associative method of object assemblage to alter our reading of materiality and physical form. The animated sequences used specially created geometric patterns and line compositions, to directly correspond with the installation’s platform based assemblage, to investigate questions of hierarchy, dislocation and animism.

This installation continues McCormack’s exploration on the potential for meaning to be generated through a material conception of temporality; by illuminating the poly-temporal qualities of an animated assemblage while simultaneously rendering it ahistorical.

To achieve this output, extensive research was undertaken to collect artefacts, sculpture and composite materials from different historical periods and across different scales. In order to assemble a non-hierarchical convergence of forms that would resonate within the distorting light-scape of digital projection. Play it as it lays includes work by the Neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, alongside wood carved, plastercast and ceramic figures and a small abstract sculpture by the contemporary artist Michael Schultze.

Play it as it lays featured in the group exhibition: As Much About Forgetting, at Viborg Kunsthal, Denmark (2018). As co-curator, McCormack’s research enquiry extended through the thematic structure of the exhibition, to consider the space that exists between history and memory, inviting a space for forgetting as a means to create a future tense. A symposium and programme of events interpreted themes in the exhibition.

The enquiry was supported in preceding exhibitions by Kunstraum, Linz, Austria (2016 & 2018) and nationalmuseum, Berlin (2017)