Repository of Irrational Gestures (RIGs) ♯ 1 (2018)

RIG’s presents and critically ponders on the role of the irrational in the C21st. Contemporary historians and cultural theorists are currently drawing analogies between our current era and the crisis of modernity in the interwar period c.1930. A period that witnessed immense political upheaval and polarization. During that period the European avant-garde take up the trope of the irrational as an anti-Enlightenment strategy, valuing the role of imagination and the unconscious over reason. In an analysis of certain mass movements and motivations both then and now many commentators are identifying the irrational within the rise of so called populism. If it is possible to agree that the irrational describes those actions, thinking and behaviours that appear to be more illogical that other rational alternatives. It is, in turn often the case that normative conceptions of what constitutes a manifestation of irrationality is often problematic, as it not clear by whose standards we are to judge behaviour as rational or irrational. RIG’s practically brings together a sequence of irrational gestures that evolve and are clashed together over the duration of the video. The gestures in the installation are collated from a multitude of sources to include historical testimony, myths, insect noises, mathematical equations, film clips, neo-feudal events, avant-garde references, occult motion, songs and more global outpourings, accompanied by a spasmodic backdrop of disco lighting. It also included offerings from invited artists writers, art historians and entomologists that date back to the sixteenth century. In total the artwork is a collective piece. RIG’s opens up a space to consider current conceptualisations and the chaotic resonance of irrationality, both within the frame of art practice and a wider cultural context.