me, me, me

Hetain Patel  Manchester Art Gallery Saturday 30 September 2017–Sunday 4 February 2018

So last night I went to an artist’s talk where Patel and a number of his collaborators talked about the pieces on current display, non verbal communication,  their background and how collaboration (presumably with the right people) can result in a work that is greater than the sum of its parts.

A significant part of the discussion centred on sign language both BSL and ASL and it occurred to me later that since sign language uses signs as the equivalent of words this is not strictly non-verbal but is more correctly non-oral communication.  Interestingly one speaker, a deaf signer, said that the signing community does use some signs that are not words but which can be aggregated presumably in some sort of conceptual fashion not accessible to a non signer.

These two short films are wonderful they are on display for a while, if you are in town go and look at them.

“This new exhibition by Hetain Patel includes two film works: The Jump (2015) and a major new commission, Don’t Look At The Finger (2017), commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella with Manchester Art Gallery and QUAD. These works continue the artist’s recent fascination with staging archetypal Hollywood action scenes within domestic settings, employing the characteristic humour in all Patel’s work. Don’t Look At The Finger presents a wedding ceremony where bodies speak physically, where the protagonists seek human connection through ritual combat and signed languages. The Jump features Patel’s homemade replica Spider-Man costume and connects the widely recognised fantasy of action and superhero films with the domestic setting of his British Indian family home in Bolton, in the UK.”