THE SLEEPER: Stefana McClure and Susan Morris
Bartha Contemporary, London
30th January - 29th February, 2020
An installation of works by Stefana McClure and Susan Morris exploring the themes of sleep, automatic drawing and language.
![View of Installation, The Sleeper , Bartha Contemporary, London, showing two parts of The Crystal Ship [set of 18], 2003, Ink on paper, each 33 x 38cm](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/686d401c6efc130268642501/879366af-2099-49c5-9b86-5dddeffc3de3/002+2+of+18+Crystal+Ship+drawings_The+Sleeper_2020_web.jpg)
Press Release
It is a great pleasure to share with you installation shots of our current presentation at Georgian House entitled 'The Sleeper', with works by Stefana McClure and Susan Morris. The showcase is a playful take on themes of Sleep, Automatic Drawing and Language.
We installed Stefana McClure's suite of eight drawings, each consisting of the complete close-captions or foreign language subtitles of Woody Allen’s classic sci-fi spoof "The Sleeper" as a progression along a single wall. Each work varying in scale depending on the size of the screen the artist viewed the movie. This suite of drawings can also be configured along multiple walls, as it was first shown in 2017 at the Sleeper Art Space in Edinburgh.
This seminal work, conceived over a two year period, is an exceptional example of the artist's "Films on Paper", which epitomise Stefana's recent practice.
Stefana McClure's interest in close-captions and subtitles began during her stay in Japan where she noticed subtle differences in foreign language translations which were altered in order to conform to cultural differences. Stefana McClure discussed the influence of Japan and her practice in a recent Radio Interview for WVIA. Alongside Stefana McClure’s work, we are delighted to show a diptych by Susan Morris. Binary Tapestry, the last in an edition of 3, was first exhibited in 2016 at the Centre PasquArt in Biel, Switzerland.
In the introduction to the before-mentioned exhibition, Felicity Lunn notes: “Morris’s interest in the systems that shape human beings, from calendrical and clock time to the technologies of communication and surveillance, is also apparent in several groups of work that examine how language, especially the expressions and clichés produced by the media, impacts on how we think. She mimics these systems in order to subvert them, from experimenting with the influence of alcohol on her ability to remember part of a song to alphabetically ordering lists of verbs drawn from newspaper reportage on the so-called ‘happiest’ and ‘unhappiest’ days of the year. The breathtaking originality of Morris’s work lies in the way it is both a commentary on these systems and a record of something that appears to operate outside of them.” 1
Susan Morris recently remarked: “The Crystal Ship is a series of 18 ‘drawings’ made in 2003. A misremembered line from The Doors song, where before I slip into unconsciousness, I'd like to have another kiss became I’d like to have another drink was used as instruction. I wrote the line out, had a glass of wine, then wrote the line out again, had another glass, and carried on like that until I was sick on my shoes. What remains of a person's own ‘self’ when they are off their heads or out of it? Then again, how much of what we think we are doing consciously is in fact unconscious or automatic behaviour, gesture or expression? 2
Two drawings from the set of 18 works complete the installation, which continues until February 29th.
Footnotes:
1.Felicity Lunn, Director of CentrePasquArt, Introduction, Self Moderation, Susan Morris
Susan Morris: CONCORDANCES I – VII (TO ABANDON > TO WRITE), Printed and bound by Book Works, designed by Christopher Lawson, Artist’s Proof, 2020
Susan Morris in conversation with Prof Peter Garrard
February 13, 2020, 7 PM
Susan Morris will be in conversation with Peter Garrard, Professor of Neurology at St George’s, University of London, about how ideas around the neuroscience of language can be of interest to an artist. The discussion will focus on current techniques of measurement and data modelling that are important to understanding the neurobiology of the brain. Garrard’s work on language change in Alzheimer’s disease, which Morris first came across in 2005, led directly to the development of her ongoing series of Concordances or ‘verb lists’ - each derived from every word printed in a mainstream daily newspaper on a certain day of the year. A copy of the artist’s book CONCORDANCES I – VII (TO ABANDON > TO WRITE), will also be on view during the exhibition.