REVIEW: [Thinking with the Body] by Wayne McGregor @ The Wellcome Collection

Thinking with the Body by Wayne McGregor
The Wellcome Collection
19 September - 27 October 2013

This is my recent review I wrote for the online publishing site: http://intuition-online.co.uk/article.php?id=3416

A study of mind, movement and dance, 'Thinking with the body' was the most recent exhibition presented by the Wellcome Collection in the increasing emergence of collaborative art and science practice. In recent years, artists have become ever more interdisciplinary and multi-faceted practitioners in their own right; engaging with an array of experts, scientists and consultants alike to fuel the research invested in their artworks. In this exhibition Wayne McGregor investigates aspects of perception, sensation and physical movement in relation to cognitive and social sciences, demonstrated through the art of dance itself.

The exhibition certainly addressed some really intriguing ideas around the body as a tool and vessel of physical expression. Using dance as a case study, this spontaneous and inexplicable expressive form of behaviour allows the dancer to use their body as their chosen medium. In fact using the body as an artistic medium is not purely restricted to just dancers, performance artists have been doing the same thing for years. Whilst watching the interchange between both the dancers and choreographers, you feel very much like a voyeur; looking in on a unique form of language by those who possess an obvious enriched understanding and utility of the body as an instrument. It goes beyond ordinary gesture, its flexible, sometimes exaggerated, sometimes amazingly subtle, as if they own a completely different embedded vocabulary of movements they are able to appropriate at will. Just like any other type of artist, dancing explores the endless possibilities of the chosen medium and in this respect, the limits to which the body can be used to express both emotion and narrative. Dance is certainly not just a visually spectacular practice but an innate form of expression drawn from the emotive core. As with many art forms; what appears on the surface  is only half the story, the rather more interesting art lies in the cognitive and psychological intentions driving the resulting physical catharsis.

What struck me as being so successful about this particular exhibition was its obvious awareness of the viewing public as an audience. Merging both art and science aspects is no easy feat and done badly can produce a bias in either direction, alienating those who have no knowledge of the scientific or artistic aspects. Creating a cohesive exhibition highlighting both areas requires a carefully considered approach translated in an accessible method of display. Through a series of interviews, rehearsal footage and filmed performance, viewers are able to hear the explanations of those involved in the featured projects from various perspectives of the practitioners involved. What was really pleasant was the degree to which the viewer is invited to participate and asked to engage. Titled as a series of activities asking the viewer to 'recontextualise', an area of the exhibition was reserved specifically for participation. Various forms of audio, visual and spatial installations allowed the viewer to challenge their sensory and spatial perceptions, and in effect offered the opportunity for the individual to literally 'think with their body'.

'Recontextualise' interactive area @ Thinking with the Body, photograph taken by Vivienne Du

The exhibition didn't feel like it belonged in a gallery. For one the white cube conventions were clearly disobeyed —and yet the exhibition didn't feel like a museum archive either; simply featuring detailed factual excerpts. In this instance, The Wellcome Collection delivered a resonant balance that did all the areas of interest justice, offering a depth of research and analysis through forms easy enough to understand from varying degrees of knowledge. It is definitely intriguing to note the Wellcome Collection's angle as an institution; aiming to exhibit from both a scientific and artistic perspective - there is a definite nod to typical aesthetic conventions in the finish and professionalism of the display, and yet the presentation doesn't quite pass as a typical gallery exhibit nor a museum archive. I am pleased to see such a refreshing stand between the two types of institutions, paving the way for a new hybridised approach that doesn't require either schools of convention to dictate.

So can such artistic phenomena be accurately explained through science? There are those who will certainly try, and such collaborations between art and science practitioners is an exciting new era of accepting that we require both in order to truly appreciate creative forms from all angles. 'Thinking with the body' asks you to think physically as well as physically think and I certainly enjoyed doing both.