Song of the Siren
Song of a Siren explores discomfort, fear, guilt, loss, loneliness and longing in facing the unknown. The symbol of the siren is presented in a series of paper fountains, a stream of water trickling from their mouths creating a deafening echo through the gallery. For the exhibition at Korai project space Wetherly explores the archaic symbol of the siren - suspending the sign within the temporal mediums dissecting ideas around seduction and preservation in an attempt to fold time and distance in and upon themselves.
Text:
Looking down at a map in hand or on a screen we see a flattened world, we imagine ourselves moving over a fixed surface towards our destination, whilst the way we have come recedes from our consciousness. Hundreds of years of observing the planets, of striving to discern our place within the universe have been condensed into elaborate equations, hidden in code and stored in the instruments we use everyday without a second thought. We can travel thousands of miles across the world without any appreciation for the majesty of such a feat. No longer laying down memories of the journey instead isolated points float around us without any anchors. It is both far easier and faster to follow blindly, however the impact it has on our daily lives is significant. Our dependence on gps is slowly erasing our sense of where we are and with this, who we are. We have become detached and disillusioned. We have become a beam of blue light radiating out a solitary beacon, a lighthouse, where we have become the centre of a virtual sphere.
Discomfort, fear, guilt, loss, loneliness and longing rise up within us in the face of the unknown. We are lost, seduced into submission by our desire and insistence on adapting and relying on technology. Disparate information - disconnected like the scattered pieces of a puzzle. We forget that before modern technology we were all moved by nature. Humidity, shadows, vibrations, birdsong are all lost languages. We have designed instruments and climate controlled environments that isolate us from this guidance. Our senses dulled, our patience waning and the conditioning of a consumerist society have left the majority of us disabled. Many of us lay swaddled in comfort, ignorance or in denial of the storm rising around us, protected by a barricade of numbness, self interest and privilege. The little lights of liquid crystal displays infatuate and distract us from what is real. I look at the little blue searchlight on my gps device and I wonder at the abstract symbols that make up the blank memories. I feel disoriented when I zoom out to a wider world view. Isolated on this island surrounded by sea, I realise how little I respected distance within the ease of a globalised world, all I have are a few facts researched on Wikipedia. The siren sings to us and we are lulled by her seduction, we are falling for her and in this moment we are swallowed by a slow walk to extinction under a facade of self-preservation.
