10 Oct 2007 to 26 Oct 2007
Kaleidoscope presents a world where forms come into being and are repeatedly reconfigured. To-ing and fro-ing between media and dimensions creates a narcissistic world that turns in on itself – each new form evolving out of its predecessor, attempting to replicate, but failing.
Failure is catalyst. Always dissatisfied, the work seeks new guises in which to appear, paradoxically emerging as a seemingly joyful and celebratory spontaneous life that virally mutates.
It is unclear whether things are coming together or falling apart. Falling in and folding up is cyclically followed by an unravelling, unfolding; a falling away from a centre, as if to reveal its component parts.
Kaleidoscope alludes to the cosmic formations of worlds and to the abstract language of physics and mathematics. In the context of Imperial College, the work hints at atom-smashing, the geometry of fusion reactors, or of patterns of atoms and molecules coming together to form galaxies. Small and domestic in scale, and using appropriated ready-mades that are near to us, these works paradoxically allude to the very large and the far-flung.
Extreme difference is at the heart of Mitten’s practice, the absurdity of which is accentuated by a fixed palette of play. The saturated, artificial colours of felt-tip pens and domestic materials are at odds with the sophisticated tools and equipment found within the world of science.
Kaleidoscope follows Eye Chamber at 10x10 Projects, HOUSE Gallery, Camberwell (26 September – 8 October 2007) where a small-scale object acts as a key, a seed that contains the ingredients out of which Kaleidoscope unfolds.