Personal Accounts
Notes is a series of short-form photo-essays on art and thoughts in orbit.
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Notes is a series of short-form photo-essays on art and thoughts in orbit. 〰️
15 November 2024
In Gabrielle Goliath’s exhibition Personal Accounts, a jumbled soundscape of mouth pops, umms, errs and humming spreads through the Talbot Rice Gallery. Correlating screens feature abrupt jump-cut footage of intense stares, tearful pauses, wrinkled brows, interlaced fingers and occasional smiles. Missing from this audio and video are testimonies by women and gender-diverse people who have survived various forms of violence.
With the words removed I instinctively attempt to ‘read’ each persons’ body language. There are obvious moments where we might infer grief, pain or determination. But there is also footage that I find harder to ascribe meaning or derive feeling. I am heartened by this. The inability to definitively know what someone else is experiencing provides an invitation to simply be present with them and accept how they represent themselves even if they are silently embalmed in pixels.
Gabrielle Goliath / Personal Accounts runs until 15 Feb 2025 at Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh.
