While on the surface, Drink & Dial is a very specific social phenomenon, relating perhaps less to the world of art and theory and more to the realm of weekend binge culture, it is this that so interests the curators, who prefer to look outward by staging shows centred around wider social and cultural issues. Obsession, desire, loss, regret, control, inhibition, compulsion and purging are some of the themes permeating the works on show. A group show of painting, sculpture, installation, performance, film, photography, text, drawing and print.
Curated by Debra Wilson & Chiara Williams. Artists
Ayuko Sugiura
Barbie L'Hoste
Barry Cottrell
Boa Swindler
Dexter Dymoke
Diana Redden
Evy Jokhova
Jemma Watts
Kate Wiggs
Marguerite Horner
Paul Sucksmith
Rie Hale
Rosanna Manfredi
Sadie Hennessy
Sam Branton
Sardine & Tobleroni
Shona Davies, David Monaghan and Jon Klein
Siobhan Barr
Stephanie Wehowski
Susie Hamilton
Tom Estes
Zena Bielewicz
Ayuko Sugiura Diana Redden Sam Branton, courtesy Sesame Gallery Shona Davies, David Monaghan, Jon Klein Marguerite Horner Paul Sucksmith Jemma Watts Zena Bielecwicz Rosanna Manfredi Rosanna Manfredi Boa Swindler
Sardine & Tobleroni
Kate Wiggs (still from performance)
Text by Sophie Wilson
Drinking and Dialling is the universal tendency of making regrettable phone calls while intoxicated. A staggering 95% of us have drunk & dialled at least once in our lives according to a recent survey - often to devastating, embarrassing and comedic effect. WW invited artists to respond to the concept of this social phenomenon and the resulting exhibition examines the perpetrators, the recipients and the aftermath of drinking and dialling.
In the classic drink and dial scenario, the caller experiences an overwhelming desire to telephone a romantic interest, an ex or even a person that one finds unattractive when sober. The act is spontaneous, impulsive and virtually uncontrollable. In today’s society where we have access to so many devices that facilitate instant electronic communication, the phenomenon has cross pollinated into different media – it is no longer just the telephone we need to avoid when drunk – it’s the mobile, the blackberry and the laptop too. Bolstered by booze, the dialler is emboldened to say what he or she really thinks of the diallee.
This manifestation of repressed desire is one of the themes running throughout the exhibition, emerging in the fetishistic media deployed in works such as Pink Elephants and Gagging Order, the violent sexual fantasy described in Diana Redden’s Boxes or in Siobhan Barr’s T9 Is Shiv (part 1 & 2), where the articulation of lust is reduced to truncated, base messages. The nonsensical imperatives “Kick My Puppy” and “My Coal Your Aunt” playfully allude to the role of detective the recipient of an alcohol-inspired text message adopts, in order to decipher communiqués that have been misspelt on predictive text by clumsy, drunken fingers.
While Barr’s work illustrates how the nature of the medium can be restrictive, Rie Hale’s Life Without Her shows how loaded a single communication can be. An entire book is contained within the very small space, whose shape and size evokes a mobile phone, illustrating that although messages may be short, they come attached to a world of meaning. In a conscious act of self-censorship, Hale removes any reference to the female subject contained within the book, repressing and sublimating the object of desire.
These messages that arise from our unconscious desires are often impulsive acts of uncensored chaos, ranging from brazen booty calls, to melodramatic pleas to be taken back by exes - as depicted beautifully in the filmic scenes in Sam Branton’s charcoal drawings Just Take Me with You and I Can Change, I Swear. Whatever the nature of the missive, the dialer is in search of an instant release.
It is this uncontrollable compulsion that is overt in Stephanie Wehowski’s Purgatory; a sound piece which mixes the sounds of retching and vomiting recorded during an Ayuasca ceremony (a ritual cleansing). Wehowski infers that the outpouring that occurs during a drink and dial session can be likened to a sickness – a kind of ‘verbal diarrhoea’. This is cleverly referenced in Sadie Hennessy’s Vomit Dish – by doctoring this found object, Hennessy gives a nod to Duchamp whilst playing on the euphemistic saying for alcohol-induced sickness. However, like vomiting, although the act of drinking and dialling in itself is often messy and unpleasant; the resultant effect can also be one of catharsis.
However, it is this exact sense of liberation that must be curtailed. Boa Swindler’s Gagging Order invokes the extreme measures that people put in place in attempt to sabotage their own abilities to contact others when drunk. When all mental faculties have gone out of the window, physical prevention is the only solution: here the artist was inspired by the experience of binding her own phone to physically stop herself from drinking and dialling a loved one. The piece deals with this notion of precaution and the preventative measures that people put in place to stop themselves from making that call. This acknowledgement of the destructive potential of the act and the desperate need to prevent it before it happens calls to mind the James Otto song Drink and Dial “So when you see your buddy reachin’ for the phone / Say friend wait awhile / ’Cause friends don’t let their friends drink and dial” – which places it on a par with the fatal activity of drinking and driving.
This notion of danger is alluded to in works that have darker, more sinister overtones. In Shona Davies, David Monaghan and Jon Klein’s short film Night of Betrayal, the plot (planned under the steely influence of spirits) revolves around a ‘phone call, which is central to the deadly denouement. Marguerite Horner’s Walled in by Feelings is similarly shadowy, taking as subject an unsettling image of a dark house which seems to be guarding a malevolent secret - reminiscent of Hitchcock’s classic horror film Psycho. The film noir theme is echoed in the Caravaggio-esque chiaroscuro of Paul Sucksmith’s Northern Idiots – a series of photo portraits of groups of drunken youths in the act of making calls or sending texts. These images incorporate light humour and yet a dark sense of the inevitable chaos that will ensue.
This idea of the aftermath is captured in Dexter Dymoke’s Sleep, which conveys the feeling of impending doom when one awakes to the realisation that they have made a drunken call, its heavy weight hanging over the bed like the metaphorical cloud over the shamed and hungover perpetrator of the night’s previous drink and dial activity. Here is a kind of self flagellation, the cringe factor as a result of the realisation of the irreversible nature of the message, now in the recipient’s inbox or on their answer phone and impossible to erase.
This idea of memory, the indelible and things that cannot be unsaid is evoked in Ayuko Sugiura’s Pink Elephants. The silent and majestic work, at once hugely present and yet strangely unassuming, is comprised of the soft pink flaps of elephants ears, reminding us gently of the adage “elephants never forget” and “the elephant in the room” – the uncomfortable truth that is out there now – a truth that would never have been spoken in the cold sober light of day.
However, drinking and dialling is not always a dark affair, in fact the phenomenon is often shared amongst friends and looked back on with humour and affection, as illustrated in Barbie L’Hoste’s And Tassle and First Date. The text within the snow globes reveals a dialogue between friends during a drinking session, concerned with such random snippets as what clothes they’re wearing and comments on the alleged sexual activities of their date for the evening.
The kitsch theme continues with Sardine and Tobleroni’s pirate version of a badly dubbed Portuguese & Swiss German Billow Dalk. Inspired by the iconic 1950s movie Pillow Talk, starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson, the film utilised the (then pioneering) split screen technique to illustrate the frustrating party line telephone conversations, which ultimately were responsible for bringing the two characters together romantically. Sardine & Tobleroni’s trademark split canvas technique is here transposed to farcical cinematic effect to demonstrate miscommunication and invasion of personal space.
Susie Hamilton’s retro, yet ambient painting Purple Dining Room 2, depicts a nightclub scene and recalls the musical Cabaret, where patrons would call fellow club attendees on inter-table phones to invite each other for dances and drinks. This can be read as a nostalgic, melancholic reflection on a time when drinking and dialling was part of a social convention and potentially more of a classy and restrained affair than those of today. The work is haunting – the focal point the illuminated, blotted out face of a single figure – a quietude which exists in a sea of noise, bringing with it a sense of resistance and yet of infinite space.
Similarly, Barry Cottrell’s If I Had The Wings, a series of drawings that begin light heartedly, transmorph into chaos but ultimately invoke a sense of escape – the scrawled, bird-like figure reminiscent of a phoenix rising from the ashes. In this, there is some solace and redemption to be found. We all get drunk. We send messages and make confessional ‘phone calls. We feel embarrassed when we are hungover. But – it’s not the end of the world. Most of us get up, rub our bleary eyes, make a coffee and get over it. We shake off our hangover shame, laugh about it with our friends and our wasted ramblings become funny anecdotes that we incorporate into our life’s narrative. Until the next time we drink and dial, when the cycle begins all over again...
additional information
Evy Jokhova
A 'Copper Cable Fault' is the most commonly quoted fault by local landline providers. Not being able to access your home phone or internet may seem like such an issue at the moment of occurrence, if only it could happen to our mobile connection when we are drunk. Copper Cable Fault comments on the absurdity and complications of drunken calling with entangled cables and phone sets which appear to be falling through the ceiling and into the abyss under the floorboards below. Jokhova is a Russian artist residing in London. Jokhova creates make-belief worlds through various media focusing on the ideas of displacement, solitude and miscommunication. Focusing on narrative and the absurd, she attempts to amalgamate disjointed aspects of contemporary lifestyles. Her work is an attempt to realize the need for inventions of unrestrained fantasy in our society; it defines the moment when the boundary between the real and the imaginary blurs.
Jemma Watts Binge started off as an exploration of young women aspiring to be glamour models and footballers wives, using their bodies to gain instant attention. Rather than setting out to either condone or condemn these aspirations, the process of drawing created an exaggerated and grotesque vision, shifting the focus away from the glamorous image these women want to convey to the ugly reality of late night tabloid-reported binge. It is left for the viewer to consider whether these images are any more grotesque than the lads mag images of femininity these young women emulate. Watts' work is concerned with power, especially systems of power that govern everyday life.
Kate Wiggs Kiki is an ambient performance intended to take place in the background of a private view. It will take the form of a tense, loaded and drunken conversation between two lovers and will not be announced formally as a performance, so the etiquette will be unclear and the audience will be placed between the roles of spectator and voyeur. The performance will take place during the private view and on both First Thursdays. Kate Wiggs works mainly in live art and has exhibited at various locations around the UK. Her most recent work, Showgirls, was performed as part of the Red Velvet Curtain Cult Club night at the Whitechapel Gallery.
Rosanna Manfredi I Wish I Didn't Love You sits chained to a lamp post outside the gallery. The text is taken from a sentence delivered by Monica Vitti in Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Eclisse (1962). Humorous yet disturbing, the sense of ambiguity is heightened by the splitting of the sentence into two ('or that I loved you much more'), creating a vital pause reflecting Vitti's own phrasing. The displacement, location and presentation of these words at a lamp post on residential Queensdown Rd recalls the ending of Antonioni's film: a series of shots of suburban Rome, made strangely tense and even sinister by the absense of the lovers who don't show up to meet each other as expected and then the final close-up of the blinding light of a street lamp as the music swells to a harshly discordant climax. In this piece Manfredi invites us to revisit the story, or perhaps start a new one at a street lamp in London...
Tom Estes While the ramblings of a drunk can be quite funny, alcohol also tends to reveal our shadow side, especially if we've never confronted it otherwise. Having witnessed the destructive power of substance abuse, Estes empathises with all who have suffered. In this work he has decided to focus on process, exchange and collaboration, creating a Drink & Dial hotline for artists to call when intoxicated. Estes is interested in the role of Anthropology in the study of human behaviour. Most scholars consider modern Anthropology as the study of the 'other' and as an outgrowth of the Age of Enlightenment and the first European colonization wave. In his practice Estes reverses this relationship, turning the anthropological eye and placing particular emphasis on the perspective and impact of long-term, experiential immersion, often known as 'participant-observation'. Estes' area of research is based on issues surrounding longing and desire, and so often intermingles elements of personal stories with wider historical and social narratives.
Zena Bielewicz
Imagine yourself late at night, in your room, alone. Everything’s spinning. The only thing that is in focus is your phone. Warning! Deep Space may cause feelings of vertigo, nausea or the uncontrolled urge to make a phone call. Born in Poland, Bielewicz moved to Canada where she graduated from Ryerson University in Toronto with a BAA in Film. After an 8 year engagement working in Toronto’s feature film industry on projects with David Cronenberg, Patricia Rozema and Ron Howard, Bielewicz left the business and moved to London in order to concentrate on making art. Primarily interested in the moving image, Bielewicz works with Film and Video where she explores themes of human relationships. In her Photography Bielewicz breaks down the medium by applying the latest digital technology to challenge the two dimensionality of the still.
10 minute performance - private view & First Thursdays
Marguerite Horner
Walled in by feelings
Oil on canvas, 93x122cm, 2007
Paul Sucksmith
Northern Idiots
Mixed media on canvas, 46x46cm, 2009
Rie Hale
Life without Her
Print (ink on paper), Edition 1 of 5, 2010
Rosanna Manfredi
I Wish I Didn't Love You
Car number plates on metal advertisting board, 2010
Sadie Hennessy
Vomit Dish
Enamel & mixed media, 30x16.5cm, 2010
Sam Branton
Just take me with you/
Charcoal on paper, 62x52cm, 2009
I can change I swear
Charcoal on paper, 67x52cm, 2009
Sardine & Tobleroni
Billow Dalk
Video, 9 mins, 2010
Shona Davies, David Monaghan and Jon Klein
Night of Betrayal
Animated film installation 91x 50x46cm, 4 minute looped animation, 2010, edition of 3
Siobhan Barr
T9 is Shiv (part 1 & 2)
Multiple framed prints, 2010
Stephanie Wehowski
Purgatory
Sound Installation, 2010
Susie Hamilton
Purple Dining Room 2
Acrylic on canvas, 72x72cm, 2009
Tom Estes
Drink & Dial Hotline
250 Business cards, answerphone, 2010
Zena Bielewicz
Deep Space
Video, 3:36, 2010
All works are for sale, prices available on request. If you require any further information about the works, the artists or the exhibition please contact Chiara Williams or Debra Wilson at wwgallery@gmail.com or 07531342128.
Sardine & Tobleroni's Billow Dalk (9 min DVD 2010) £10 + p&p
WW held a General Erection Party for TimeOut First Thursdays on 6 May 6-9pm. Sardine & Tobleroni's ‘You Got the Blues' / Drink & Dial General Erection Secret Ballot / Kate Wiggs performance of 'Kiki' With testosterone flying and the gloves off for the general election, WW presented ‘You got the Blues', a sneak preview of Sardine & Tobleroni's new satirical take on politicians as calendar pin-ups. It was also the last chance to view Drink & Dial and WW set up a polling booth and ballot box for visitors to vote for their favourite work in the exhibition, with the winning artist guaranteed another erection at WW soon...and the winning artist was Shona Davies, David Monaghan, Jon Klein with their short film 'Night of Betrayal'.
Sardine & Tobleroni's You Got the Blues, 12 portraits on paper of politicians as
heroes of Blues, Jazz and Country, based on R. Crumb's 2010 Calendar
