installation shot
detail
of crystal radio
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crystal
set 1995
EVA+
limerick city council
open award winner. curated by m de corall
Crystal set is a piece comprising of 10 copper wire ' vests ' made using
fisherman's knot. These vests are linked together using copper wire which
then links them to a home made crystal radio set. The vests in effect
act as an aerial for the radio.
The piece is concerned with the importance of access to information and
the nature of communication. The vests behave as almost figurative elements
silently and discretely passing information from one to the next. Their
co-operation renders the radio signals audible via the ear phone on the
radio set. From a side view the vests become almost fence like, defining
and outlining a territory. The radio punctuates this line of defense
becoming almost a fullstop to the operation. The radio itself looks like
some crude devise, whos purpose is initially unclear, in fact it is a
very simple piece of technology taken from a children's ' how to make
' book.
The use of such simple strategies in such a technological age points
perhaps to a necessity rather than a choice. It highlights the importance
of information and its acquisition in times of duress, especially in
cases where that information directly relates to the person deprived
of it.
Particular examples of this might be the manufacture of such home made
radio sets by allied prisoners during WW2, or as more recently in Irish
history by prisoners in the late seventies and eighties trying to gain
access as to how their actions were being covered by the media outside.
This piece presents seemingly random information from local radio stations
but in doing so has the possibility of alluding to harder facts.
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