Susan Hillers’ latest show at Matts Gallery is shown in a space adjacent Mike Nelson’s More things (To the memory of Honoré de Balzac) in a pairing which adds weight to each. Somehow they share a pallet, the blue here implying that temporary in-between when changing input, providing moments of escape next door in Nelson’s work. They tansported me out of the spaces, with Hiller taking my thoughts out beyond my body, and Nelson suggesting a sideways experience.
It reminded me of Le Corbusiers Chapel at the Convent of La Tourette, as I was bathed in an earie light, subtly changing.
In presenting what is ‘not intended as a religious consolation nor ‘new age’ fantasy’, Channels employs a wall of TV screens to bathe us in sound and light. In doing so, it captured me, and before I knew I had been sitting there for 20 minutes, worshiping the ubiquitous, all-knowing technology which sits in the room with most of us these days. The factual accounts of Near Death Experiences were undermined by the unfamiliar orientations of the screens, and the result transcended statement, leaving me questioning how I absorb the emissions and suggestions from the big flat face in the corner.