Abstract
This major new commission by Mikhail Karikis explores the relationship between listening and care. Karikis’ moving image installation has been developed with carers and non-verbal people who use studio space at Project Art Works, an artist-led organisation in Hastings that collaborates with people who have complex support needs. Through I Hear You, Karikis invites us to pay attention the sensitive tuning-in of support workers, artists and family members to those they support – a precarious role that is often invisible, misunderstood and undervalued by society.
The installation comprises a series of video portraits of caregivers, each of whom is captured in the act of attentive listening and communicating with the person they care for in an exchange of gazes and touch, whispers, guttural sounds, words, whistles, laughter, claps and signs.
In I Hear You, Karikis proposes that observing caregivers working with non-verbal people can serve as a gateway to a generous and inclusive way of thinking about relating to others. Set against a backdrop of hardship and intolerance towards people with disabilities, as well as growing differences of opinion over common purpose in the UK and in Europe, the work is a hopeful affirmation that, no matter the differences between people, communication is possible.
A new text by Salomé Voegelin accompanies the exhibition.
Mikhail Karikis’ project is developed with Project Art Works and commissioned as part of EXPLORERS – a three-year programme of awareness-raising and encounter workshops, conversations, productions, commissions, exhibitions and seminars in collaboration with people who have complex needs and those who support them. EXPLORERS’ aim is to develop positive relationships between cultural organisations and the social care sector and to reposition people who have complex needs at the forefront of mainstream culture.
EXPLORERS is supported by the Arts Council Ambition for Excellence programme and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. I Hear You is kindly supported by the RTR Foundation and the Baily Thomas Charitable Fund.
Mikhail Karikis’ exhibition is kindly supported by the RTR Foundation and the Baily Thomas Charitable Fund.
The installation comprises a series of video portraits of caregivers, each of whom is captured in the act of attentive listening and communicating with the person they care for in an exchange of gazes and touch, whispers, guttural sounds, words, whistles, laughter, claps and signs.
In I Hear You, Karikis proposes that observing caregivers working with non-verbal people can serve as a gateway to a generous and inclusive way of thinking about relating to others. Set against a backdrop of hardship and intolerance towards people with disabilities, as well as growing differences of opinion over common purpose in the UK and in Europe, the work is a hopeful affirmation that, no matter the differences between people, communication is possible.
A new text by Salomé Voegelin accompanies the exhibition.
Mikhail Karikis’ project is developed with Project Art Works and commissioned as part of EXPLORERS – a three-year programme of awareness-raising and encounter workshops, conversations, productions, commissions, exhibitions and seminars in collaboration with people who have complex needs and those who support them. EXPLORERS’ aim is to develop positive relationships between cultural organisations and the social care sector and to reposition people who have complex needs at the forefront of mainstream culture.
EXPLORERS is supported by the Arts Council Ambition for Excellence programme and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. I Hear You is kindly supported by the RTR Foundation and the Baily Thomas Charitable Fund.
Mikhail Karikis’ exhibition is kindly supported by the RTR Foundation and the Baily Thomas Charitable Fund.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 28 Sept 2019 |