On December 8th 2022 I presented ‘toward an emblem‘, a slidefilm with live reading, as part of the Huddle series organised by CAMP. I have been interested in the concept of the emblem for a number of years, and wanted to find a way to share some of this in both textual and visual form through a performance on Zoom. The Huddle project was a good opportunity to share this work in progress, and allow space for some dialogue or discussion.
The emblem draws my attention because of its malleability, its function as a communicative device, but one that is unstable, variable, mobile. Bringing together materials or elements from diverse contexts and from conflicting sources, the emblem as assemblage sits awkwardly within categories and classification. Juxtaposing collages that strain taxonomy and poke at order with texts that bring together theory, ornament and repetition the presentation will test what can be said in the present with a worn out or junked vocabulary.
The recording of the zoom live performance of the text and image work ‘toward an emblem’ is online at the CAMP website. My performance runs to 25:39 on the timeline. It is followed by a short Q&A with the online audience, and then there is a presentation by artist Sarah Trotter. Follow the link to the CAMP website HERE and scroll down to December 8 to watch the video. The opening two sections of the performance text are below.
Toward an Emblem
1.
BEACON that yields the desired pattern of annual consumption while working
for every pound that was being put in the collection plate.
As a title used exclusively by rulers, the glyphs render the particular
BADGE invisible (as is the ‘enforced consumption’ of services)
and the invasiveness of the collection procedure
in this specific musical sense.
The perfect home, the perfect hairdo, the best quality products from around the world, you see them , you want them, you can have them … these fruits, spices, teas, preserves are brought to you by well-established trade routes, laid down in past centuries, worn in well by ships, cargoes of people and cargoes of stuff – Grand Imperial Stores – extractions and/or abstractions, they arrive at your door, they manifest on your table, they appear in your bowl …
A party look, an occasion, something to bring out your best for, looking your best, the good china, setting the table with all the bits and pieces, the full set, fully set up … organising these, presenting in proper order, knowing what goes with what and what goes where, minding your Ps and Qs, knowing your arse from your elbow — and how did you learn this? Oh, I just know, it’s passed down, passed on, it’s innate, goes with the territory, the mapping and the occupation of territory …
Flags of the world, in alphabetical order this disrupts their spatial and political relationships but organises them in a way to allow someone to tick them off, been there, done that, seen this one, but that one is out of date, that one has disappeared, no longer on the map … somewhere to aspire to, a future destination, if it’s still there, and not under water, not absorbed by another, a greater power, occupied colonised liberated controlled – for the best, their best, our best of course.
2.
BREADCRUMB develops a concrete alternative concerning demand via
a rather comprehensive collection of the conditions of confinement,
and/or the portrait of the reigning monarch.
The time path of aggregate consumption
which the museum funded through the sale of its coin collection
is more than a loose
CUE but also serves as a kind of calling card for the artist himself.
Patterns of repetition bringing things into relationship, belonging together because they are alike, are familiar, related … gathering things into classes, orders, systems, whether manufactured or natural, organic or inorganic, animal vegetable mineral … collectable things set apart, by rarity, by status, titled and ennobled, given some mark of rank, an indicator of superiority … check underneath for a logo, a maker’s mark, that certain sign of authenticity;
Holding the object, in that moment of decision, whether to add it to the others I already have, to allow it in, to make it part of my collection, incorporating it into the existing set, extending and expanding that set through this incorporation, ingesting, consuming, bringing this inside and making it part of what is already in place; I’m handling it with confidence, I can afford this, I want this, I can have this …
Labels, stamps, bugs, stickers, motifs, logos, they’re recognisable, noticed, seen and quickly noted in passing, to ensure things are in the right group, that they belong here, that they are alike, connected in some way, formal, genetic, functional, associative, by origin … and then represented, taken and reorganised into a new set, rearranged, displayed in some incidental provisional adherence in the service of the gatherer, the hoarder;