Steph Yates

Thingness (2017) was created by Jenn E Norton and Steph Yates for the performative exhibition, ‘The New Flesh’, curated by Tasman Richardson, held at The Music Gallery (Toronto). Using invisible forces to transmit a signal through a circuit of transformative devices, everyday objects that emit light, heat, produce air currents and transmit radio waves, playfully delineated a path of causality. Using what was readily available in a domestic space to build a reaction machine in a bricolage process that oscillated between absurdity and ingenuity, this assembled circuit drew upon invisible, virtual and intangible forces to move physical objects in a rhythmic composition. A video creature made from rubbish touched the physical realm creating heat, driving motors, spinning fans, flickering lights, playing instruments, inflating and moving more rubbish. Sometimes it made popcorn for us.