The View from Inside the Ball: Being part of the Installation – Jane Connelly writes on Eva Kotátková’s A Storyteller’s Inadequacy at Modern Art Oxford

From 5^th December 2013 to 2^nd February 2014 Modern Art Oxford presented A Storyteller’s Inadequacy, the first UK solo exhibition by artist Eva Kotátková in which she proposed a playful and awkward relationship between performance, object, sculpture and installation.  A Storyteller’s Inadequacy saw a giant speech organ command the space of the Upper Gallery, creating a playground, gym, theatre and circus mixed environment for a group of performers to enact poses and temporary body constellations. The performers interacted with an eclectic range of objects in an exploration of the possibilities as well as the limits and barriers in human communication and interaction. Oxford dance artist Jane Connelly describes her experience as one of those performers in the personal account below.

 

A Storyteller’s Inadequacy – Eva Kotátková at Modern Art Oxford 30th November 2013 – 2nd February 2014

Modern Art Oxford presents the first UK solo exhibition of Eva Kotátková’s varied conceptual work featuring the most prolific performance based works to date.  Local independent dancers Marina Collard, Paulette Mae and Jane Connelly are among a shifting team of performers in A Storyteller’s Inadequacy in which the artist proposes a playful and awkward relationship between performance, object, sculpture and installation.   A giant speech organ commands the space of the Upper Gallery, creating a  playground, gym, theatre and circus mixed environment for a group of performers to enact poses and temporary body constellations; they interact with an eclectic range of objects in an exploration of the possibilities as well as the limits and barriers in human communication and interaction.