Barbican curve installation

This exhibition space in the Barbican is known as The Curve. Its darkness, the lack of visual purchase offered by its corner-free walls, creates a silky gloom which is simultaneously conspiratorial and ominous.

The quotation is first rendered by an individual and then repeated in unison by a crowd, as if at a funeral mass for fallen heroes. Although the prisoners are specific, the perpetrators of oppression remain in the shadows. More intriguing questions, perhaps more relevant questions, to a London audience are left uninvestigated. This enemy is one who was trained by the East German state, clings to its beliefs, practices and its spycraft, but who now sets his own agenda rather than operating on behalf of a government.

If government exits the role of oppressor, who fills that void? The answer is that we all do. Orwellian groupthink steps in perhaps, however well-intentioned. Could we extend this argument further, and admit that some points of view will simply never be represented in museums or galleries? How would the European artistic community respond to iambic pentameter by an anti-abortion activist, installations by an artist who sees immigration as a threat, or watercolours in support of the second amendment?

How was the Curve determined as the location of the installation? How has the space helped realize your vision? At the time when the Barbican offered us The Curve, we had been playing around with a couple of two-axis pendulum prototypes. The idea which later became Momentum was formed as a reaction to the physical shape of this gallery.

We wanted to turn The Curve into a spatial instrument people could step into; a space mold with different rules of physics. What happens when we build a new model? What happens when we bend the rules? Momentum consists of twelve pendulums that swing back and forth, inspired by Foucault pendulum ; a scientific instrument that used gravity to demonstrate the rotation of the earth.

Over time, the pendulums in The Curve gradually progress from behaving naturally to moving unnaturally slow, or impossibly coordinated. In the gallery, the rate at which time passes is made variable.

The effect of gravity on the pendulums seems to change over time. Article published in www. Shilpa Gupta. William Kentridge. Shirin Neshat. Yoko Ono. Gerhard Richter.