Ken ✶ Syakira
UNIT 1
UNIT 2
✶ info
syakiraken@gmail.com
I had the chance to show ★Open Ended Boundaries in two shows the week after the ★Summer Show, which was Sagacious (LumiNoir Art Gallery) and Fragility (Peckham Levels). It was a bit of a logistic nightmare as I was out of town for ★summer vacation. I had to adapt in managing my work remotely by providing firm and exact instructions for the hang, including all necessary tools and screws. I also had to learn how to professionally safely wrap and package my work for transit, as I was accustomed to personally delivering and installing my own artworks.
While the installation process at LumiNoir Art Gallery was straightforward, the show at Peckham Levels had a different challenge present. The venue prohibited screwing any elements directly into the wall. This led to an interesting discussion with my friends on how to reinterpret the work for the space. Ultimately, we had the window grill lean against the wall and allowing the chiffon to drape low and pool across the floor. Does it activate the artwork? I think not. But the non-ideal way of displaying the work helped become one of the unifying fragments to make this exhibition whole.
Not being able to attend the exhibitions and only viewing my work through the provided digital documentation created a sense of irony. I was essentially seeing my artworks through the window of my phone. Because I was physically distant, the artwork; a piece dedicated to exploring three-dimensional space and the liminal threshold was compressed and reconstructed into a flat, two-dimensional image. The digital mediation meant I couldn’t perceive the work’s true scale and it’s relationship with the space, transforming the tactile experience to something very distant.
The exhibition of my two window pieces shown up north in a formal gallery in Chalk Farm (Sagacious), and the other down south in a makeshift exhibition space in Peckham (Fragility) provided an immediate and intensive lesson in site-specificity. The curatorial outcome of both shows were equally varied: one show had the window displayed leaning on the floor, while the other was hung cramped among other works. While I was not entirely satisfied with every aspect of these curations, this contrast solidified my realization that the exhibition space and its curation are not passive backdrops, but actively dictate how my work is activated.
Showing two pieces at the same time separately from each other made me feel like I’ve made a conceptual portal spanning from north to south London, transforming the entire metropolitan area into part of the artwork’s site. The exhibitions were not just isolated hanging, but interlacing points that briefly converted the city into a big site. Oh how interesting would it be to install multiple windows across diverse urban site to create interlacing network of portals, formally activating the city as a comprehensive site for viewing and engagement.
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