Catopromancy
17 September 2013- February 2014
Julian Rowe and Terry Perk’s new work, Catoptromancy will be installed in Ashford’s County Square shopping centre in September 2013. The artists share an interest in the ways in which we use space. For Catopromancy they are assessing the shopping centre as a place where existing theories on the use of space can be re-examined.
Contemporary shopping centres can be considered to fall into a category that the anthropologist Marc Augé has called ‘non-places’, sites of transitory activity characterised by their lack of cultural resonance, that, however crowded, are essentially experienced in solitude. The sense that such a place might be anywhere tends to be reinforced by a family resemblance of architectural style and the widespread replication of retail outlets and branding.
Catoptromancy, from the Greek for the divination of the future and oracle of the truth by the use of mirrors, is presented by Rowe and Perk through a pairing of kaleidoscope structures animated by live CCTV feeds. The work will enable the viewer to enter an alternate space, encapsulating and reconfiguring the reality of the occupied shopping centre and thereby questioning the viewer’s position within the space and the authenticity of their experience.
Catoptromancy will be found in the lift well at County Square shopping centre from 17 September 2025 – February 2014.