Boni Cairncross, 56., 2019, cyclical text-based action, typewriter on paper, 56 parts, 21 x 29.7 cm each
56. quotes point 56. from Maggie Nelson’s ‘Bluets’ - a meditation on the colour blue, relationships and longing. This quoted text is loaded with references to the visual - blue eyes, painting histories, looking and desire, blinded sight and chastity, clarity and seeing clearly or not. In this work, the text becomes the basis for a cyclical action and reflection on multisensory processes. The text undergoes a process of being read aloud and recorded, played back and typed out by hand in real-time; and repeated. As the process evolves, gaps and slips emerge, and then at times memory begins to fills in the blanks. Through this action the visual references become enmeshed with the aural and the tactile, where the brutality of the legends recalled are echoed by the physicality of the process of hand-typing the text.