KOMME

Curated by Naomi Pearce

‘And so it was that the two decided to try their powers upon an unknowing traveller, deciding to see which of them could soonest strip him of his cloak.’ [1]

KOMME is an invitation, a collaboration harnessing participatory performance-based practices to examine the internal structures of the ‘art world’. Over the course of one week, during Art Forum Berlin, curator Naomi Pearce and artists Faye Peacock and Patrick Coyle travel through the city asking members of the art establishment and the public to attend two private views, at ÏMA Design Village.

Working independently each artist will enlist members of the public to attend a private view held on the last evening of their stay in the city. These interactions form the basis of the work created and eventually exhibited at the private view. Whilst the artists are fulfilling their role of making work, Naomi Pearce fulfils her responsibilities as curator and visits Art Forum Berlin in order to meet, advertise and invite as many members of the ‘art world’ to a champagne reception also held at ÏMA Design Village, on the same evening, overlooking the artists' private view.

In harnessing the private view as an integral stage for the exhibiting process, a means by which success is gauged and an opportunity for opposing artistic factions to collide, KOMME reflects upon an event that is a microcosm of the art world; an arena in which its internal structures and politics are exposed. 

Patrick Coyle’s intuitive approach to his interactive performances directly contradicts the laboured objects he produces during the event. Often producing obsessively precise visual poetry, the result veers from whimsical ramblings to surreal contemplations.  For KOMME, Coyle invites individuals to pose with him in photo-booths around Berlin. His notes written on the developed photos concerning the sitter and his relationship to them will be revealed at the private view. Participants hear Coyle’s comments upon their time together only if they attend the private view at the end of the week.

Central to Faye Peacock’s practice is an acknowledged impossible struggle to capture the ‘truth’ or essence of the people she involves in her performances. The voices she collects are mere snippets of personalities; a person edited down to a sound bite; fragments in time, fixed in a moment of history, captured on a reel of tape. For this project Peacock produces sound work formed from conversations and voices harvested from her interactions with the public.

Coyle and Peacock’s contrasting approach to a public audience and the distinct manner in which their interactions are manifest invite a discussion around performative practices concerning temporality, the ethics of social engagement and the physicality of an art work. The hierarchical system ‘KOMME’ constructs explores the process of manipulation and voyeurism that is arguably inherent in the process of producing and experiencing a performative work. It is hoped that in creating a dialogue around the extent to which these mechanisms alter the understanding of art works, some re-evaluation of individual roles can occur.

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