Log II
Date made: 2017
Artist: Atherton, Kevin
Description: ‘Log II’ is a video animation of the sculpture/book ‘Log’ (1981), which consists of twelve hardback sketchbooks. The original performative work began at 09.00 hrs on the 2nd June 1981 on board the ‘Manx Maid’ in Douglas. This was when the artist took up his position on the covered deck and started to draw in the first sketchbook as the ship left harbour. Over the next four hours he drew continuously until the ship docked in Liverpool. The resulting twelve volumes constitute a visual log of the voyage from Douglas to Liverpool. On disembarking at the Pier Head in Liverpool, Atherton took a taxi to the Bluecoat Gallery and on arrival laid the twelve opened books in sequence on the gallery floor where they remained for the duration of the exhibition ‘Art and the Sea’. Subsequently in 1982 ‘Log’ was exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. At both galleries several pages of the work were graffitied by the general public.
In 2017 Atherton re-entered the work in the role of a conservator who provides verbal responses to these examples of graffiti as he proceeds to erase them. The tongue-in-cheek humour of ‘Log II’ is underscored by the virtual nature of the clean-up process, as the original books remain graffitied and in store at the Manx Museum. Functioning as a new performance, the ‘erasing’ of the 1981/82 graffiti succeeds in bringing value through critique to the graffiti whilst providing an additional narrative to the voyage from Douglas to Liverpool, which for the Manx diaspora has proved to be so life changing.
Atherton playfully uses his voice in the work both in the traditional sense of the ‘artist voice’ but also in the lived sense of his voice as that of a Manxman. Both of these aspects of aurality are clearly evident in the work through his erudition and his accent. Further embodiment of the artist’s presence in the work is provided by the glimpses that we catch of the tattoos on his forearms, one of the three legs and one of the artist’s signature.
‘Log II’ is both a comment on, and a challenge to, much contemporary archival practice, which when applied to time-based work from the nineteen-seventies and eighties, often fails to present the work as a living thing operating in the present. In effect, by making a performance out of a performance, Atherton can be regarded as having kept the work ‘live’ for the audience for the work today.
Measurements: 1 hour 12 mins continuous
Object name: digital art installation
Collection: Art Collection
ID number: 2018-0047
Subject tags : #artgalleryjourneys
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