2-channel looped video installation
A tool can be a very deceiving weapon, can represent negative connotations, be an unwelcome object in its surroundings and be loaded with fault. it can tell a story, signify a shift in community and economy and represent urban change. For over 12 months, a slow revolving earth auger stood front and centre, acting as the first tool to implement change, as it bored holes into the subterranean, each hole and metre representing the soon to be inflated costs of market stalls in local trade within our communities. Yet for over 12 months of urban shifts, all we saw at first glance was the hypnotic spin of the tool.
Trigger Happy Discipline focuses on the revolving properties of a range of imported drill bits, from steel earth augers to zinc coated, helical plaster mixers, and their formational arrangement, somewhat mimicking methods of Japanese flower arranging in tolerance of construction, assemblage and setting.
Encompassing a purposeful, slow action approach, a controlled trigger dictates the speed of matter in material resulting in a series of singular methodical movements. More than simply following a revolving part, Trigger Happy Discipline empathises with other areas of the tool, such as it’s ‘stem’ and ‘leaves’ as the lens profiles the mundane to the elaborate, given in the unconventional setup of the subject matter.
Subsequently the spiral play becomes an auxiliary, as scale, form, collection and aesthetics determine the curated set, with stature forming the natural order of existing artefacts on this platform.
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Commissioned Associated Text:
A Day Spent Building Dams, Oliver Basciano (2017)
Trigger Happy Discipline is currently part of Colour, Form & Line, until 20 Dec 2025 at the Graves Gallery, displayed alongside works from the collection by Naum Gabo, Bridget Riley, Tess Jaray...
In Oct 2024, Trigger Happy Discipline was acquired by the Sheffield Museums for their permanent collection. For all loan enquiries, please contact visual@sheffieldmuseums.org.uk.