Cultural Dessert

‘The Museum of Hope in the Dark’ by Forest Fringe

14 May 2019

On Tuesday morning I was at Tramway in Glasgow to see ‘The Museum of Hope in the Dark’ by Forest Fringe, part of the 2019 Luminate Festival. Andy Field’s installation consists of a darkened room with six bare light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. Each of the bulbs flickers on and off, apparently at random, but actually creating messages in Morse code, transcriptions of short texts about Hope by six older women: Lois Weaver, Jo Clifford, Geraldine Baird, Samshad Waheed Ghani, Tasneem Karim and MAC. You are provided with paper, pencils and a guide to Morse code and invited to decipher the messages but I found it impossible to follow any of the quickly pulsing lights, and was too distracted by the other five. Fortunately the full texts are also provided to visitors (in a sealed envelope). They address a range of topics, including depression and discrimination, in prose and poetry, finding hope in the darkest places.

Labels: Exhibitions, Luminate2019

posted by Robin Simpson @ 1:49 pm