Tongue on Tongue, nos salives dans ton oreille was born out of the following questions :
what if we allowed ourselves to conceive the future? What future/s and what language/s
would write them? What system/s of exchange could we (re)invent to trace the paths of our common future to bring about new ways of being, together?
Mason Kimber’s work is anchored in the inbetweenness of architecture and memory. His
practice deals with the collision of experienced places – both their interiors and exteriors
that are imbued with personal histories. Applying an archeological approach to painting
and sculpture, Kimber creates wall-based reliefs, collages and site-specific installations
through which fragments of recollection and history are embedded. During his time at the
British School in Rome, Italy, his research surrounding ‘architectural memory’ allowed him
to examine the fragmented structure and spatial illusion found in ancient fresco painting.
For the artist, the works house the present by blending personal and collective histories
together to become a form of shared archive.
For prologue, the artist presents a new performative sculptural installation composed of
plaster and resin-based tablets realised using the shop front façades inside the Passage
du Prado, Paris – one of the oldest arcades in the capital. The works reconfigure the way
that we engage with history by listening to local stories and translating them into sculptural
form. The work will be made in close communication with local shopkeepers of the arcade
as an integral conceptual component, with their voices informing the composition of
the installation itself. The work will evolve across time as a cumulative and processual
installation – reiterating the stories and conversations documented only through the reliefs
themselves. In this way, the narratives are multiple, non-linear, and ever in-process. For the
artist, these works are not simple imprints or copies of architectural detail, instead they
embrace the uncertainty of remembering and its role in writing the future.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
