Morfill, S., Giles, S., 2019.

Found Gestures (Chicago)

Found Gestures, an exhibition at Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago showcased a series of artefacts produced during an international collaborative residency with Chicago-based artist Susan Giles.

The sound of the human voice, according to Derrida 'lacks extension.' '[A]lthough it belongs to duration, sound never lasts long enough' (79:119); the same is true of the gestures that synchronise with verbal expression. These works delineate the movements of speakers' hands as they draw in air - a point on each palm extending to a line as speakers describe the experience of seeing memorable art works during Hyde Park Art Center's long history. Alongside transcriptions of the spoken word, wall-based adhesive vinyl 'drawings' temporarily preserved the brief moments of discourse from which they originated. They represent the slow drawing out of a moment of being, through an extended process of making that involves a chain of digital and material translations, and in the last instance they are removed from the wall leaving no trace.

This is a hybrid form of making in which motion capture and computer-aided manufacturing tools combine with the artistic gesture. Digital processes are challenged and coaxed to produce results that belie the mechanical gesture of the machine. In this work, movement is recorded in three-dimensions, and the mass of acquired digital data can be materialised in a range of ways. For Found Gestures (Chicago) the data has been collapsed into near 2-D to produce front view and top view drawings using painted adhesive vinyl over the length of the gallery walls and floor.

https://www.hydeparkart.org/exhibition-archive/found-gestures/http://

In November 2019 a 36-page full colour publication including two commissioned texts was published by Hyde Park Art Center. The publication, included documentation from both Found Gestures (Chicago) and Found Gestures (London).