SPACE

2 Sep -30 Sep 2006

Juan delGado

Suspended Reverie (ten minutes) brings together a series of new works by Juan delGado exploring the theme of displacement and its effects on our habits of perception. Set in Cartagena, Spain, Interlude (II) 2006 presents the viewer with the hypnotic representation of a rope seemingly floating over a mass of water. The large-scale video installation occupies the darkness of the main gallery space and stirs the associations of perceptual identity, its interferences and agitations. The continually changing reality of representation is mirrored in the static water of the pool whilst poetic lines of text, illuminated on the gallery walls, heighten our awareness and susceptibility to change. The floating rope is at once a vision of wavering vulnerability but doubles as an indication of delGado’s auditory condition tinnitus – the frayed red ends of the rope likening to the structure of a nerve cell.

The dreamlike environment delGado creates extends to a photograph of a beach and playground structure. Entitled Interlude (I) 2006 its timeless qualities are evocative of the processes of growing up. Its lack of a real and distinct presence adds to a sense of dislocation and child-like vulnerability. The absence of activity presents us with traces of a memory as delGado describes the memories of childhood, the places they inhabit and the impossibility of return.

Through photography and video installation, delGado's work refers to social and cultural representations of sexuality, gender, and disability in modern society. In 2002 he was the recipient of an Artsadmin New Media Bursary and was awarded a R&D Sciart by The Wellcome Trust for his project "Ringing Forest" currently in development.

Suspended Reverie occurred alongside Ed Pien's exhibition Wrestling with Demons and the performance event PIN-UP curated by Bridget Crone.

Suspended Reverie (ten minutes) has been funded by the Arts Council England and has been supported by Full Circle Arts.