[TISEA 1992] Artists Statement: Tessa Elliott & Jonathan Jones-Morris — Emergence

Artists Statement

Emergence is an installation of floating forms which hover and mutate, multiply and migrate. A maze of ambiguity, it refers to the illusion of reality and the eternal inquiry of existence. The elemental domains of the circle, triangle and square are activated by movement through space. The drawings, which apparently lie below a waxen surface, are revealed as the body becomes an inscriber and beacon, its shadow casting light, its gestures making marks. The resulting drawings are the culmination of an assemblage of interactions as the installation continually accumulates the changes brought about by previous participants. The work departs from mimicry and simulation. By centring upon the interplay between shadow and substance, actual and suggested motion it creates a subtle, dynamic labyrinth of innumerable permutations. In dealing with the elemental, Emergence aims to redirect the focus of interaction from the quiescent observation of external production to introspection and contemplation.

  • Tessa Elliott & Jonathan Jones-Morris, UK