IF NOT YOU NOT ME - ANNIE ABRAHAMS AND LIFE IN NETWORKS.

IF NOT YOU NOT ME - ANNIE ABRAHAMS AND LIFE IN NETWORKS.

[img]http://www.digicult.it/digimag_eng/articoli/img/performingart_mariachatzichristodoulou05.jpg[/img]

Review by Maria Chatzichristodoulou on Digicult.it.
http://www.digicult.it/digimag/article.asp?id=1793

Annie Abrahams's show If Not You Not Me at the HTTP Gallery in London (12 February till 20 March 2010) was inspiring in its subtle, low-tech sensitivity of inter-connectedness. This was Abrahams's, a French-based pioneer in the field of networked performance, first solo show in the UK. Abrahams created three new works for the show. Documentation of several of her previous projects, including some of her most well known pieces such as One the Puppet of Other (2007) and The Big Kiss (2008), was also effectively displayed.

Amongst the new works created for this exhibition, Shared Still Life/ Nature Morte Partagée, appeared to be the central piece. This was a telematic installation that connected the HTTP Gallery in London with Kawenga - territoires numériques in Montpellier, France. The piece was extreme in its simplicity, almost stark 'nakedness': a table, a cloth, a plant, some fruit, a clock, a dictionary, and an LED display were more or less the objects that formed the still life composition.

There was also paper, marker pens, crayons, and blu-tack, inviting visitors to contribute paintings, messages, marks, written traces. Furthermore, visitors could compose their own messages for the LED display, as well as interfere with the installation in any way imaginable -since there were no guidelines telling us what we could and could not do with the still life or, indeed, our own presence in front of the camera.