FOR THE SAKE OF THE IMAGE
Accompanying texts from exhibition, Jerwood Space, London, 2010


The Sound of Space / Pamela Kember

In Dan Walwin’s Inconceivable, Inevitable, we only hear the sound of a motored generator, starting, then stopping, on what appears to be a blank screen. The work conveys the inexorability of a time frame, with the viewer’s sense of frustration at the difficulty of seeing-not seeing, and losing ones bearings, that gives the work its disturbing dimension. The outcome, literally dissolving, in order to assert, as Camus does in his writings on the Myth of Sisyphus, of the inevitable absurdity of life made meaningless, where the question ‘why’ arises in our daily route through endless repetition.

For the sake of the image / Suki Chan

Image follows sound in Dan Walwin’s Inconceivable, Inevitable, where light and sound seem to be trapped in a continuum. The sound of a generator in darkness brings forth an image that recedes as quickly as it appeared, sending the viewer back into darkness and silence. This seemingly endless cycle is unsettling and futile. The central character in reflective clothing seems passive in the struggle between visibility and invisibility.


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