Repository of Irrational Gestures (RIGs) 2018

This first formulation of the Repository of Irrational Gestures swivels attention towards the irrational, exploring those actions, thinking and behaviours that could appear more illogical in comparison to other alternatives. RIG’s brings together a sequence of irrational gestures from myths, insect noises, film stills, neo-feudal structures, Avant Garde references, occult motion, song lyrics and more global outpourings. This irrational inventory is a collective endeavour including contributors from artists, academics and an entomologist. So begins the irrational collection. This first version presents a large-scale single-screen projection with soundtrack. The piece plays on a loop and resists any traditional narrative arc as it moves haphazardly between the visual, audible or textual. In this single-screen version the audience are seated in comfortable armchairs, immersed in the black space of the installation. The dissonant affect of the work comes from the visual cacophony of the montage sequence, where the impulse to see affinities and make unified rational sense is disrupted or confounded by each successive clip in the sequence Through a jarring index of partial information, the archive enables an examination of the unstable cultural specificity and the disruptive affects of the irrational and its currency in our times. In its unauthorised form, RIG’s runs counter to sanctified cultural politics and structures.