Paul Bailey
nine views from LOOKING FOR/THROUGH/WITH/AMONGST/BEYOND/AROUND CONTENT by PAUL BAILEY for Probe, November 2013
all images © Probe
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Probe is an exhibition space in Arnhem (The Netherlands) created in 2008 by SUZE MAY SHO. The particularity is that Probe is a model space: it measures a somewhat six cubic meters and has been thought like a lab where you can experiment radical exhibition concepts. Therefore the exhibitions only exist in the form of documentation, which comprises exclusively 9 different perspectives enabling the spectator to wander around the space and thus to visit the exhibition.
Probe is an exhibition space with walls no higher then 1,10m and a surface of 6m2. It’s a test lab, an artistic skinner box. Its small and practical dimensions enables artists to create works on scale, that are unthinkable in real life. The artist is omnipotent: the architecture of the space is flexible and wholly subservient to the exhibition: walls can be extended, doors can be removed, a floor made of glass, mirrors or wood, even the lighting situation can be fully controlled. Albeit a physical space, Probe is only accessible on the internet. The registration of the exhibition is the exhibition.
For the 22nd project, Probe invited PAUL BAILEY, an Irish graphic designer, researcher and lecturer, who meticulously crafted a series of wood structures and prints.
Probe, though unimposing in scale, is confronting. This is largely due to the form in which the Probe platform serves information. For example, within Probe the viewer/reader is brought around the work (on the periphery) and not specifically into the work. This left me with a range of questions and challenges to consider with regards to proximity, perspective, immersion and modes of reception. The given restrictions – limited number of images, fixed perspectives, (web)site specific context – offer a reflexive frame for exploration, which I enjoy. (…) I came to Probe with an interest in exploring the essay as a form of articulation (textual, visual and 3D) to pose questions about how we receive and digest content. The essay form interests me as a site for extended thought – a space to suspend an increasing thirst for immediacy and clarity in our habitual and somewhat perfunctory approaches to reading and watching. – PAUL BAILEY
Make sure to watch more stunning projects especially created for Probe via http://www.projectprobe.net/
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