Research centre
Art and Design Research Centre

Date 
February 2012– March 2012

Video Letters

Alison J Carr and Kerstin Honeit were brought together by LoBe, Berlin, taking part in a residency together in June 2011 and a subsequent exhibition, ‘Showtime’ in December 2011. As they prepared to work together they began to exchange ‘video letters’, which they continue to do. Their only rule is that they must respond to the video letter they receive.

Two ongoing dialogues have emerged out of this practice: ‘Video Letters: Voice’ and ‘Video Letters: Body’. Over the course of these conversations a shared visual language has evolved in which the commonalities and differences of their respective practices are teased out in an intimate way. As the artists technically and visually quote one another, conceptual and geographic distances are bridged. However, because of the conversational back and forth structure, the two artist’s identities remain recognisably distinct.

The exhibition at Sheffield Institute of Arts will see the ‘Video Letters’ reconfigured for the new context. The video work will be supported by stills from the conversations installed as photographs on the walls of the gallery. The mezzanine will be used to show an accumulative project of Honeit’s: ‘Position #1’, a video work in which a static woman standing in front of a closed garage, whilst pedestrian and road traffic moves around her.

Honeit has created ‘Position #1’ in Berlin and Chicago and will add a new Sheffield instalment to create a three-channel projection.

This exciting exhibition follows our collaboration with LoBe in 2011, The Hum.

Researchers involved

Alison J Carr - Associate Lecturer and Research Degree Student (Alumni)