Text Language Space

'The Narrators' Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

Here are new narratives about, text, language, objects and space brought about by an exciting juxtaposition of the oldest objects from the Walker Art Gallery Collection and the Arts Council Collection to create the exhibition 'The Narrators'. Its stated aim is to propose and explore links between objects, the spaces within the museum and language. Visitors are encouraged to consider how these elements operate together to suggest a new narrative.

The exhibits in Room 14 were:

Andrea Alessi C15th stone relief of St Jerome who translated the Bible from Hebrew into Latin.

illuminated manuscripts - Books of Hours and Psalter

George du Maurier's drawings from Punch Magazine combining text and image to give a satirical view of C19th society

rare work by composer Maurico Kagel

one of John Cage's word constructions

Louise Hopkins erases every note and word from a song 'I can't stop loving you' by Don Gibson

Anna Barriball's drawing of a stain glass window

Becky Beasley looking at the relationship between sculpture and photography using a piano

There were other exhibits around the gallery that |I did not see.

Louise Hopkins erased song 'Song Sheet No 4' was white on white beauty like icing on a cake! It was wonderful to go up close and peer into the small box frame. She seeks to displace or disrupt existing organizational systems of information and language such as song sheets, densely patterned fabrics and Ordinance Survey maps. This song music notes and words on paper has be erased by painting over it with glossy paint. It leaves a silent trace of the original upon the surface. A song is composed and played with care and the hearers listen and take away in their memories a snatch of melody or they hum some of the tune or recall a line of the lyrics with emotive feeling. Memory is haphazard and fleeting but a trace remains.

Two Books of Hours and a Psalter are displayed alongside 'Escapade for Strings by Mauricio Kagel 1968 (above). It is pegs in a board with holes with rubber bands stretched between the pegs to make it into an instrument. The composition of the pegs and strings relates to the geometric page proportions and margins found within the medieval manuscripts.

PlexigramII (Not Wanting to Say Anything About Marcel) 1970 John Cage silkscreen on acrylic
(above and below) Cage determined its content, colour and placement by a group of change outcomes obtained from the Chinese 'I Ching' system. The work is also installed by chance with its panels in a different order each time it is exhibited.

Becky Beasley Gloss II (photograph - not shown here) and 'Night, Music' 2007 (below)
Its the structure of an upright piano as a photograph and as a sculpture. From a distance I thought it was an upended bookcase especially as the theme of this room is text and books. It references  a short story by Truman Capote 'Music for Chameleons' 1960 about a black mirror and a piano.

The piece which made a big impact upon me was Anna Barriball's Sunset/Sunrise V 2008. Its a tracing of a two-part Victorian stain glass window. The graphite rubbings really show up the surface of the object and it is intended to respond to the architectural interior of the Walker Art Gallery and is so placed to suggest a new entry or exit point. I realised just how heavy lead and glass are by looking at this textured rubbing that is so intense, heavy and solid. I am used to thinking of stain glass windows as carriers of light.

It is an incredible exhibition of objects and I can appreciate how dynamic space can be: space on the page, space surrounding the sculpture and the space of time when they were made.

inside the Walker Art Gallery