Imagine, following the echoes of a story, a myth or fable, as if these were breadcrumbs jesting towards a place distant and past. Indeed, imagine following this trail as it guides you some place far flung. temporal spelunking, as the title of this exhibition suggests, is not a fixed object of study. Coined by the artists Tim Berresheim and Rechonski on the occasion of this artistic conversation, the phrase alludes to a process: the investigation of time’s sedimental layers. Specifically, the exploration of folklore and how these tales malform as they physically move with and across generations.
Caves, tunnels and human inferences upon the earth’s belly, have often served as sites of cultural inquiry. The Hohle Fels cave in Germany’s Swabian Jura mountain range and the chalky Uffington White Horse carved into England’s Oxfordshire hills not only record the presence of human beings long since gone but, in their material qualities, allude to rich histories and narrative traditions. Working with the metaphor of a cave, in temporal spelunking, Tim and Rechonski focus on how stories physically unearthed in such places travel across time. Bringing together images and objects, as well as other quizzical gestures, the exhibition pays attention to the way stories are embodied in associative found objects—artefacts to use a more scientific term. The pair, individually and together, are not only interested in the allusive nature of such objects but, more so, in how the materiality of these symbolic forms leak, infusing the priory tale with a new narrative sheen.
Listening to various object-tellers, their sites and contexts, temporal spelunking leans into the material transmission of ancient stories. Here, using stuttery echoes and reverberations, a speculative conduit is collaboratively formed alike a tunnel or deep path. one is lead through towards far off narratives, be these magical, mysterious, digitally informed or with an instinctive sense of human hapticity.
Tim Berresheim & Rechonski: temporal spelunking press release
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