Visual Arts Programme
The Concourse Installation 2003
Vivian Hansbury-Internal Logic
The pureness and fluidity of Vivian Hansbury's Internal Logic is absolute sculpture. Her off-white ovoid forms have an organic and primeval quality that can only have roots in nature. Vivian has made visible to us the internal logic of the near invisible, micro-organisms of our bodies.
Man's predilection for exploration and thirst for knowledge as to the matter of the world, has presented humans for the last 150 years with material for intellectual digestion. Vivian's sculptural constructions build on this evidence of existence and are a furthering of this store of visual reference. Through the examination of scientific photographic records, Vivian has processed these images, developing 'temporal' sculptural forms, photographing these and then re-sculpting, enlarging and developing the shapes. This process-led approach develops a tactile and personal quality in the work and one that encourages you to engage more fully with the final sculptural forms presented.
Vivian plays with scale as one might play with perspective, catching angles and light, forming an opinion and then being decisive as to the final image. The viewer can walk through the tenuous and sinuous strands of enlarged DNA which have been slung off the rafters overhead and engage more fully with their own interior. But there is no nasty fluids or slimy evidence of bodies, only pure gracefulness of form and shapes constructed in an a
morphous fashion. Her 'temporal' works though based in nature and presented as organic forms are created out of manmade cotton wool, artificial lighting and plaster. And indeed the original images of the micro-organisms are stained, coloured and enlarged in order that we can view them with the microscope or the naked eye.
This playing with scale brings to our exterior world and vision that which would be rendered invisible and unknown. It is brought closer to us again as we stretch to touch and peer inside and so the unusual experience of looking inside ourselves creates an awareness of our flesh and by extension, an awareness of our transience and own mortality. These uncharted territories rendered in sculptural form, map the unknown, near -invisible structures within our bodies. Vivian recreates organic, colourless structures that are 'a reminder of our human presence' (V.H.). Our hidden world within is renderd visible for sight and for touch giving an awareness of our own construction and fabric and creating a self consciousness that is at once, unsettling and yet comforting. We are jolted into a self awareness as we digest the title of the work and the dawning realisation that we are confronted with elements of our biological framework that we find beautiful and yearn to touch. The immediacy of this work, its scale, fluidity and elegance feeds our visual senses and urges us to touch and peer inside the ovoid forms and for our eye to follow, the sinuous connections between each pod, to find a system and a source.
Internal Logic consists of twelve PVC hoses of varying width, draped over girders high above the Concourse space in the Council Chambers. At their ends resin balls or 'pods' of plaster are placed, some directly on the floor, others attached to their vertical hosing. A number of larger pods stand freely among their sisters and all are constructed of resin plaster, coated in a clear, silicone, light reflective rubber coating. The work is constructed in such a way that the viewer is invited to walk through and experience their internal world in an external context. The light reflective qualties of the pvc tubing and the silicone coated pods, serve to make the work seem lighter, bigger and thicker. Its ovoid hollow shapes, strung up and strung together, caught like punctured eggs in netting are reminiscent of marine life and for a brief moment, the work becomes a marine tableau. The concept for Internal Logic was developed as a direct reaction to the vastness of the space within the Concourse space and serves to further Vivian's own explorations into the genus and evidence of our human existence and presence.
Internal Logic renders visible an unknown world that it is impossible for us to know. Our thoughts are turned inwards while immediately we revel to touch and experience the beauty of the sculptural forms. A work of contradictions, Vivian has manifested the hidden, brought the internal to the external and imbued with gracefulness and elegance the scientific discoveries of our age.
Kerry McCall
