Bluecoat’s 'But Does it Speak?' continues with three new exhibitions

Liverpool’s Bluecoat is continuing its thought-provoking season But Does it Speak? this spring, with three new exhibitions that explore the relationship between writing, speech, and the visual arts.

From playful experiments with language and sculpture to a deeply personal look at Long-Covid, and a decades-long portrait project, the latest instalment of But Does it Speak? offers visitors a diverse and thought-provoking artistic experience.

Joanne Masding: The Movable Scene of the Page

Friday 4th April – Sunday 11th May

Preview: Thursday 3rd April, 6-8pm

Joanne Masding. Image provided by Bluecoat — But Does It Speak? – Joanne Masding – *The Movable Scene of the Page*. Image provided by Bluecoat

Masding’s playful exhibition investigates how images, objects and words link together. Through a combination of sculpture, fictional writing and typography, Masding transforms the gallery into a space where language can mingle, collide and flow.

Following on from her 2024 book, Body of Pieces, the exhibition at the Bluecoat presents new writing by Masding and follows her strategy of using fiction to explore the nature of objects, their physical properties and how they relate to us. Masding describes writing as a ‘sculpting tool’ allowing her to defy the laws of physics and go inside objects. In the gallery, visitors will explore sculptures made from metal, ceramic, plaster and shimmering textiles which are suspended from a series of elongated copper sculptures. Pages of Masding’s new works of fiction will hang from these copper frames, for visitors to tear off and read.

The Moveable Scene of the Page also features Masding’s new alphabet sculptures, inspired by, and in the shape of Monster Munch crisps. This novel new typeface is formed by extrusion; a means of forcing soft material through a hole in a flat disc. Monster Munch is made using the same technique, but as this tube of material comes through the extruder it is sliced into individual, flat claw shapes. Masding’s ceramic letters become poetic sculptures, with phrases like “tongue tripping over a glazed ceramic marble” suggesting a collision of words and objects in our own bodies.

When working between the disciplines of writing, sculpture and performance, Masding is often thinking about translation, and how the essence of an object can change. When a drawing is made of a bunch of grapes, it is translated into a flat image and some information is lost (the weight) but something is also gained (small details are highlighted). When that image or artwork is written about, it is translated again into letters and spoken language.

Through her work, Masding gives us the opportunity to look closer at this translation process. She suggests that art is often a task of slowing the world down, and holding it in place so we can take a closer look. When we produce a drawing or take a photograph of something, we fix that object in place and study it. Masding’s work seeks to fix the act of translation in place, giving us the chance to slow down and examine the process.

Rowena Harris: Long-Covid and the Culture of Disbelief

Friday 4th April – Sunday 11th May

Preview: Thursday 3rd April, 6-8pm

But Does It Speak? – *Long-Covid and the Culture of Disbelief*. Credit: Rowena Harris

Rowena Harris’s Long-Covid and the Culture of Disbelief is a single-channel film that explores the socio-cultural context of Long-Covid and ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis). The film, made over several years, draws on the artist’s personal experience of these related health conditions. It emerged as a film about ME before the pandemic, and then responsively evolved as Long-Covid emerged and took hold in the world and the artist’s body.

The film uses captions without an audible voice, to guide us through an examination of the history of ME. Taking us back to the 1950s when the disease was first studied and named, and then into the 1970s when it was reclassified as a psychological condition and linked to a misogynist idea of ‘hysteria’. The film asks us to consider this culture of disbelief in relation to Long-Covid.

Harris uses a combination of found footage, CGI, and a soundtrack of rhythmic beeps and clicks, reminiscent of MRI machines and medical equipment to engage in an idea of sickness that slips between the personal, societal and of the film media itself. The film narrates back to us, “a film can look like this and still be sick.”

All Together Now: Portraits by Veronica Watson

Friday 4th April – Sunday 4th May

But Does It Speak? – Veronica Watson. Image provided by Bluecoat

Veronica Watson has been chronicling the people who populate the Bluecoat for almost 20 years. As a founding member of Blue Room, the Bluecoat’s inclusive arts project, she has cast a steady eye over the ever evolving community of people who spend time working, volunteering and creating at the arts centre. Her portraiture practice has captured the likeness and spirit of many individuals through drawing and painting.

For the first time, the artists’ collection of portraits will be shared in a limited edition book, All Together Now with a foreword by writer Mike Pinnington from the Double Negative. More information on how to purchase the book will be available soon.

This accompanying exhibition features a selection of portraits of people connected with Blue Room and the Bluecoat, along with archive images of Watson’s long engagement with the arts centre.

The Bluecoat is also hosting a programme of events and workshops this spring, including a series of Bluecoat After Hours creative sessions, Print Studio workshops, markets and more. See the whole programme on the Bluecoat’s website – thebluecoat.org.uk