Project description:

Visceral Matter is a solo contemporary jewellery exhibition showcasing the work of Alejandro Ruiz, accompanied by a dinner event at David Dale Gallery’s warehouse. This experimental exhibition aims to engage the audience using non-typical curatorial tools in the cultural space, transforming visitors from passive viewers to active participants.

In this exhibition, visitors can wear the pieces and gain knowledge of the process and the narrative behind them using interaction cards. These cards aim to provide a different perspective on the artwork, motivating the audience to ask questions, reflect on what they see, and interact with one another.

In the evening, sharing food and sitting around a table with people, whether known or new, creates an open and safe environment for connection and conversation. The research work behind this exhibition focuses on tools that can surprise the audience, reduce the distance between the artwork and the viewer, and create a new experience. It explores how to provide information about the work and its concept in a more playful, experimental way.

Alejandro Ruiz’s inspiration comes from searching for the unseen within us, challenging conventional views by exploring places others might overlook. These themes are consistent throughout Alejandro’s earlier and current work. Alejandro invites the audience to touch and wear the exhibited objects, engage in conversations about the work, and experience contemporary jewellery from a different perspective. The artist’s approach to the exhibition and the curator’s experimental methods align on common points, making this collaboration achievable.

Collaborators:

Alejandro Ruiz – artist

Vica Gabor – curator

Hazel Glass – art writer

Lydia Honeybone – chef

Adam Tompa – actor

Persofoni Gerangelou – actor

Location: David Dale Gallery and Studios – warehouse

Curatorial Statement:

Experimentia

This project has multiple collaborative elements; the first I would like to explain is the artist-curator collaboration, where the essential part of the partnership lies in a similar way of thinking about experimentation, playfulness, and diversity.

Experimental aspect: Alejandro decided to learn a new technique (casting) and use a new material (silicone) when they started working on this graduation collection. Similarly, I chose to introduce a non-typical curatorial tool (dinner) into the cultural space as an experiment and created interaction cards specifically designed for this exhibition. This search for a different perspective, showing another way of seeing, is an essential element of Alejandro’s current and previous works.

Playfulness: Alejandro mixes profound concepts (like anxiety) with humour and playfulness. In my case, one of the ways I try to surprise the viewer is by offering interaction cards, which are also playful tools with serious aims, such as creating connections and shifting perspectives.

Diversity: Alejandro’s jewellery not only adorns the body but also serves secondary purposes; it helps to relax, provides sensory pleasures, and can even ease the discomfort of baby teething. The curation is a juxtaposition of eating, gathering, playing, and inviting the audience to become active participants in the exhibition (as models or guides).

I hope these common points not only strengthen our collaboration but also enhance the unique experience of Visceral Matter.

The second collaboration involves Hazel Glass, an art writer based at David Dale Studio, who we asked to wear one of the exhibited neckpieces for two days. This playful experiment served as the starting point for her exhibition text. Hazel’s text inspired us to film two actors, Persefoni Gerangelou and Adam Tompa, who read the text, creating a video that became an integral part of the installation. In Hazel’s narrative, the jewellery Mimo is personified as a living creature, and her abstract text humorously explores the various characteristics of the jewellery.

The third collaboration in this project involved Lydia Honeybone, who, as part of the Glasgow Supper Club, created and cooked the menu for the dinner, drawing inspiration from the colours of the jewellery. Lydia specialises in sustainable vegan dishes served in unique, intimate locations such as her home or, in this instance, a gallery space. She designed the setting so that everything is displayed on serving platters as guests enter the dinner space, creating an opulent banquet aesthetic with raw fruits, vegetables, and candles.

The fourth collaboration occurred between the actors Persefoni and Adam, as well as myself. The idea to record a Zoom call was natural, as Persefoni, whom I really wanted to work with, lives in Athens, while Adam (another unique talent) lives in Glasgow. In this video, they portrayed an intimate scene, pretending that the obvious distance does not exist, and performed the exhibition text as a conversation. Although the text itself speaks from one person’s perspective, we found a way to turn it into a dialogue without changing anything in the original text. The actors are naturally open to experimentation, and Persefoni and Adam approached this performance with a playful yet (and again) serious attitude.

Collaboration, experimentation, playfulness, serious humour, and changing perspectives are the seeds of Visceral Matterand also of my curatorial practice, but now as I think of it, these are also the motivations of my personal life.