Site 15. Kathleen Herbert (United Kingdom)
Untitled (Music Box and Embroidery Machine) (2001)
Workshop
2nd September - 15th October 2002

A music box and an embroidery machine; a looped video focused on one sound and then the other, alternating between sweet musicality and mechanical din. Both machines are to do with manufacturing, with mechanical precision: the rotating, perforated metal drum that produces the twinkling sound of a music box, and the rattle of an industrial embroidery machine with its stabbing needle and flying thread. Both encapsulations were mesmerising - the mannered, matter-of-fact construction of musical notes contrasted with the frenetic and breathless lettering of an embroidered word. The artist captured the moment when a functional object performed: she took the viewer beyond the machine's actual purpose by focusing on its system or structure; the slow rotating drum and metallic 'fingering' of the music box and the systematic piercing needle of an industrial embroidery machine.

Curator: Ewen McDonald