Sorcha Dallas

The exhibition Blackberrying takes its starting point in visual perception and the relationship between distance, proximity and visual desire. Referring to Benjamin and Virilio, Manovich has stated that: “distance guaranteed by vision preserves the aura of an object [] while the desire ‘to bring things closer’ destroys objects’ relations to each other, ultimately obliterating the material order altogether and rendering the notions of distance and space meaningless’. Similar to Manovich French writer George Bataille has described this desire to zoom in visually as something that can ultimately turn our sight into momentary blindness, but unlike Manovichs pessimistic view, where blindness becomes darkness, Bataille has a more positive understanding of the blinded sight. In his authorship Bataille is constantly fascinated with the eye, especially the blind or blinded eye, the eye that in its urge to see everything finally ends in darkness. This darkness is for Bataille much more interesting than what the eye actually sees, because this condition opens up towards a different insight, namely the meeting with the realistic world. In Batailles Story of the Eye the visual desire is put to extremes. The eye in the story becomes a literary metaphor for the gaze and the visual desire and its urge to capture and penetrate, to go beyond the surface of the viewed body or object, ultimately opening up to a non physical vision or dimension. The focal point of the exhibition is to raise questions about visual expectations and desire, and related themes such as the relationship between surface and substance, control and desire, distance and proximity, abstraction and representation etc.