juneau/projects/ - The Black Moss

FACT are delighted to present new work by juneau/projects/ commissioned specially for this exhibition, alongside a selection of other recent pieces from the last year.

Birmingham based juneau/projects/ use improvised consumer objects to create performance, sound and installation works that investigate the conflicting relationship between nature and technology. For this exhibition the artists draw inspiration from British wildlife through a new digital animation and installations that literally take over the building, spilling through the public spaces and exploring our perception and romanticism of nature.

Media Lounge
juneau/projects/ new commission for the Media Lounge, Instincts are misleading (you shouldn't think what you're feeling), transforms the space into a mystical shrine devoted to wildlife, featuring digital animation and an array of hand-made creatures. Visitors are invited to contribute their own miniature homage to wildlife, to form part of the continually evolving installation. These are then selected by the artists and incorporated into the animation at several points during the exhibition.

The installation also includes music juneau/projects/ wrote and performed live at the opening of the exhibition, together with musical instruments they created for the performance.

Public Spaces
The public spaces see an invasion of nature into FACT with a flock of pigeons (a common juneau/projects/ emblem) and crows nesting amongst an array of shrubbery. In addition, clusters of magical mushrooms can be seen growing around the building and in the crevices of walls in Gallery 2. This cheeky intrusion into FACT, an organisation with technology at its very core, challenges the central role of technology in our lives by suggesting that nature is setting out to reclaim its place in our environment.

Gallery 2
I'm Going to Antler You, in Gallery 2 consists of a hand-painted drum kit adorned with animal skin rugs and a motion sensor that relies on the audience's presence to trigger previously recorded band music. Evoking a sense of musical nostalgia, the piece was born of the artists' desire for a close encounter with their favourite band Flaming Fire.

juneau/projects/ worked with two youth groups in Birmingham to create imaginary bands Ebony Angels and The Embers, making logos, costumes and photographs, which are also exhibited here. The project builds on the artists' previous collaborations with a range of people including cub scouts, soul legend Lee Fields and highland warriors, which resulted in the creation of CDs, magazines and an online record label.

Beneath the floorboards of the forest, empty space, invites visitors to enter the imaginary woodland of an interactive text-based computer game. Navigating through various levels, the audience encounters fictionalised characters and places in Birmingham, Cambridge, Sligo and Liverpool, added as the work has travelled through the exhibition tour. One of the workstations is fully accessible with spoken text, large print and a Braille keyboard.

The Black Moss exhibition tours to Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea in spring 2007.

Karen Allen Curator (Moving Image)