Two large, dark blue cabinets are held in mid-air on taut, vertical steel cables. Each solid form suggests a book with its covers open wide, and transparencies of a book spine are set in the narrowest face of each cabinet. Initially it appears that these spine images are digital clones, but closer examination reveals that two versions, or 'volumes', have been generated from one original. By mixing the embossed gold letters, two digitally-related titles have been generated: The Pageant of the Century and The Centre of the Pageant.
Each cabinet also contains a large illuminated transparency (one the mirror-image of the other): a double-page photograph showing the funeral procession of Queen Victoria in 1901. These interior images can be seen only through perforations cut in a concave mask.
In the cabinet designated The Centre of the Pageant the round holes trace the diagonal axis of the street, commandeered for the cortege. With The Pageant of the Century figures at the other side of the police cordons are surveyed. By focusing in this way on individuals who occupy mutually exclusive areas of the street, the perforated cabinets present two interlocking, illuminated constellations which trace the division of public space during the funeral.
Funding & exhibition information
....
The Unwritten Constitution was first exhibited in Crowd Control, funded by Yorkshire & Humberside Arts Board.
Crowd Control was first presented by Site Gallery Sheffield, September 28 - November 16 1996 and toured to Street Level Glasgow and The Bonington Gallery Nottingham in 1997
Crowd Control included:
A Wave, CD audio
You Are Here beer mats
Bothered (Black Rod) installation
The Nature of Their Joy installation
The Unwritten Constitution installation
Crowd Control catalogue published by Site Gallery, with an essay by Rob Stone ISBN 1 899926 15 1
See reviews & press - Crowd Control (use sidebar titles)
