Looking a screening
Camara Taylor, Scott Caruth, Mel Baggs
Thursday 29 February, 7pm, Serf Leeds
As part of my residency at Serf in preparation for my solo presentation ‘I can fit a fist in my Mouth’ in March at Cubitt, London, I hosted an evening screening of works by Camara Taylor, Scott Caruth, and Mel Baggs. These works reflect themes explored around desire, negation, and the body.
‘Suspiration, [noun]—a long deep breath or a sigh. The film is a collage of imag- es, newsreels, bodily gestures, texts and sounds collected over four years. The structure and the score of the film are comprised of the body’s audible release of liquid and air; enmeshed utterances and ir/regular vibrations. Within the film a politician meets the echo of urine running down a bowl; a crowd is hushed; a grand- mother questions a popular line; a poet testifies and a body contorts itself in pur- suit of escape. suspiration is a counter/ intuitive mixing of feelings as/towards facts, an experiment in the sounding out of depressive modes| desire; despair; loss, and so love.’
‘The first part is in my “native language,” and then the second part provides a translation, or at least an explanation. This is not a look-at-the-autie gawking freakshow as much as it is a statement about what gets considered thought, in- telligence, personhood, language, and communication, and what does not.’
‘BOB is the result of experiments done using 16mm film in Glasgow’s Pipeworks Gay Sauna, where camera’s are strictly forbidden. Changes in light, temperature and precipitation leave leave direct im- pressions on the film as it is transferred from reel to reel by hand whilst navigating the space. This footage is paired with re- cordings of conversations between my- self and ‘Bob’, a gay man who was born without sight. Through phone calls and Skype conversations between New York and Glasgow recorded over the course of four years, a relationship evolves around the erotic potential of the voice when it is privileged over touch or gaze. It charters the negotiations around an experience in which other senses are favoured over sight and what ensues when one person has access to vision whilst the other does not.
camara taylor is an artist and – – – living in Glasgow. They tend to make still and moving images, texts, events and installations that act as moments of stasis in an enduring unravelling of—
Recent works include holus-bolus commissioned by Edinburgh Art Festival as part of What happens to desire… cur. Tako Taal (2021)l; suspiration!, a film organised around queefs and other utterances for The Newbridge Project, Gateshead (2021) and sorry I missed you, an epub of collages for The Second Life, Edwin Morgan Trust & Saltire Society (2020/21).
Taylor has undertaken residencies at Market Gallery, Glasgow (2020), The National Theatre of Scotland, Glasgow (2019) and Fresh Milk, St George (2015). Camara previously participated in Curatorial Directions at MAC Belfast (2019); Constellations (UP Projects/ FTHo, 2017-18) and was a Committee Member at Transmission Gallery from 2016 to 2018.
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Amelia Evelyn Voicy Baggs (born Amanda Melissa Baggs; August 15, 1980 – April 11, 2020), also known as Mel Baggs, was an American non-binary blogger who predominantly wrote on the subject of autism and disability. At times, Baggs used a communication device to speak and referred to themself as a low-functioning autistic.
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I graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in 2012 (before it burned down). Since this time i have maintained a practice that approaches instances in which the lens or the camera as an object have played a decisive role. I am pursuing this through several long term research projects ; مممم (Molatham) , instigated in 2012, is a project which seeks to document the practice of studio portraiture photography in the West Bank . The project utilises archival research and first hand oral history’s to explore the ways in which Palestinians have chosen to represent themselves through the medium of photography. The project was recently published in book form by Trolley Books and i am working towards adapting it for the format of moving image. Other long term works include ’Despacio, Despacio’ (2014-present) is a moving image research project that explores the legacy of Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa’s relationship with the Hollywood film industry in the early 20th century by working with local Villa impersonators in Durango. I have participated in a variety of research oriented residencies including at Stills (Edinburgh) and Fondazione Fotografia (Modena). I am a recent graduate of the Syllabus IV programme. I am currently based between Glasgow and Berlin.
