Their Floating Attention

Their Floating Attention was the title of a group exhibition, which featured the work of seven artists and was presented in the Florence Trust gallery, in London. Curated by TC McCormack, this exhibition was developed from the curatorial-led research project: Euca Annex. The curatorial investigation considered two particular receptive states; ‘attention’ and ‘perception’, and how they each manifest differently in the artist and the viewer. The selected artist’s, in their processes of making work, share an ability to hold a heightened and evenly-suspended receptiveness, where awareness is fluid and free from presumptions or fixity (in other words: a floating attention). TC considered the potential of the viewer (in a gallery context) when receptive to particular types of artwork, as capable of perception that is contingent, transient and boundless. The exhibition featured artists: Laura White, Diana Taylor, Fay Nicolson, TC McCormack, Simon Lewandowski, Ben Fitton and Benedict Drew, and presented a wide range of practices including; painting, sculpture, print, drawing, textile, video and installation – displayed throughout the gallery spaces. Each of the artists in Their Floating Attention possess uncommon methods of attentiveness within their practices, the curation responded to the specificities of the artists’ ‘staying of attention’. The curatorial design featured a paratactic structure, which freed the artworks of conjunction or compelling associations, enabling them to stand independently in an open dialogue. In contrast, a floor-based display system was introduced in two of the spaces, to establish a correlative interplay (or doubling-effect) introducing a destabilizing influence on the viewer's experience.