Behind Fiction

1st May - 2nd May 2005

12:00 - 16:00

Located in an SPT Subway Glasgow carriage (please contact E m e r g e D for more details)

'Behind Fiction' is an intimate sound installation, which presents a collection of 'mini sound portraits' developed from vox pop style interviews, conducted with the general public, in public places, in Glasgow.

The work consists of thirteen monologues edited from live interviews, conducted with the general public, in public places, in Glasgow. The participants, asked to interview as an (aspirational) fantasy self, proceed (with some guidance) to describe their character in appearance, personality, lifestyle, employment etc. The resulting 'self portraits', (between one and two minutes in length), variously relate to the 'real' character and range from the ordinary and plausible to the fantastic and the fictional. The listener, with no comparison to the 'real' story and with no visual information, can only engage with the reality of the language of the character presented.
The work is presented as an intimate sound installation and will be located within a SPT Subway Glasgow carriage.

christine COLLINS explores the articulation and construction of subjectivity through language (what might be considered a linguistic self portrait) and more particularly, the conversational language that surrounds identification with a particular activity or occupational role (hobby, job, profession, passion, pastime). Within this context, she explores the relationship of the verbal to the visual and of representation to reality.

Recent works have been developed from an initial engagement (through interview or survey) with a particular group or community. Edited contributions from participants become the basic material of the artwork, interposing issues of originality, appropriation and authorship and a relationship to documentary or ethnographic formats.

COLLINS is an Australian artist who completed a Masters in Fine Art at The Glasgow School of Art, with the assistance of a Samstag International Visual Artists Travelling Scholarship. COLLINS is now currently based back in Australia, however, has recently exhibited in TENT, Rotterdam and National Centre of Arts, Mexico City, Tramway and Intermedia Gallery, Glasgow and with Bowieart, as part of the Portabello Film Festival, London. She has also exhibited at Artspace and Centre for Contemporary Craft in Sydney and in the Australian Textiles Biennial and more recently a Research Residency at Market Gallery, Glasgow.