‚Jenny Brockmann: #ENERGY/STATE/REACTION’ by Linda Rocco
Jenny Brockmann: #ENERGY/STATE/REACTION
At Hearth Gallery, University Hospital Llandough
in partnership with the National Museum Wales
A discursive performative installation by international artist Jenny Brockmann and curator Linda Rocco in collaboration Goethe-Institut London will begin with an opening event on December 2nd 2021 at the Hearth Gallery, University Hospital Llandough, Cardiff and Vale UHB.
#ENERGY/STATE/REACTION is the second iteration of Jenny Brockmann: Bypass – The Emergence of Voices and refers to the allegory of the liver. The liver is the central organ of metabolism and the largest gland in the body of vertebrates. Its most essential tasks are the production of vital proteins, utilization of nutritional components, production of bile and the breakdown and excretion of metabolic products, medicines and toxins.
Unfolding via two curated events, or Entanglements, at the Hearth Gallery, University Hospital Llandough, #ENERGY/STATE/REACTION will look into the properties of the liver from a literal and metaphorical point of view, considering processes of regeneration and metabolism in relation to the analog world and digital technologies.
Critical to each event, or Entanglements, is the sculptural installation Seat#12. Mounted on a single central axis, Seat#12 is a kinetic sculpture developing from a wood base into 12 aluminium branches, which are 12 seats for people facing each other. Displayed together with discursive objects and cartographies, Brockmann’s situated discussions welcome patients and staff members, casual audiences, and invited speakers, expanding the artistic process beyond institutional contexts. Seat#12 aims to open up a space for thought and for the senses and will include references to the National Museum Cardiff’s medical collection, which contains artifacts related to the history of knowledge and medicine.
As part of the programme, Entanglement #1: The Color of Sound invites patients and staff members of the University Hospital to share their experiences during treatment, verbally, visually and/or through movement. The effect of color and tone on a person’s mood will be discussed/experienced with musicians from Harmoni Cymru. With Dr. Alan Watson (Reader in Anatomy and Neuroscience at Cardiff University), William Brown (guitarist) and Kathrine Miller (violonist).
Entanglement #2: ‘Metabolic Objects’ uses objects from the medical collection of the National Museum Wales as the starting point to exchange ideas about medical research and knowledge production, treatment processes and the social and emotional interdependence of (architectural) environments, patients, staff, and volunteers in a hospital.
#ENERGY/STATE/REACTION is a public laboratory facilitating unusual conversations amongst experts and amateurs, intentionally assembled to reflect upon the manifold analogies of the liver, processes in the human body, and digital behaviours. The unpredictability of the events takes into consideration the inherent limitations of language and embraces moments of doubt and misunderstanding as inevitable features of the constructed encounters. With Ingrid Jütter (principal curator botany at National Museum Wales) and Paul Witthaker (visual artist and co-creative of Arts & Health company, Four in Four).
Jenny Brockmann: #ENERGY/STATE/REACTION is part of the nomadic project BYPASS – The Emergence of Voices initiated by artist Jenny Brockmann and curator Linda Rocco, taking place throughout 2021-24 across six different locations in the UK. Existing at the intersection of art, science and research, the project reflects on notions of connectivity from multifaceted perspectives, acting as a catalyst in exploring notions of transdisciplinarity and collaborative methods.