Two channel video and sound installation, 2014 (single screen excerpt)

Kate Liston and Dan Wilde present the second iteration of <UNLEARN>, a body of work that draws from various situations where a person is instructed to be attentive, including TV intro sequences, call centre ‘on hold’ music, public information posters and guided meditation videos. The work explores the implicit gesturing of architectural and interior design features common in public commercial spaces; the means by which we are told to adopt (or not adopt) a certain position. On one hand, Liston and Wilde’s repetition of images and forms undermines the premise that there can be an authoritative version, on the other, the re-iteration of an image or concept is the very means by which it becomes ingrained in a persons mind, gaining authority.

Kate Liston and Dan Wilde re-present <UNLEARN>, in a second showing of this work that borrows from situations where you feel an implicit understanding of how you are being instructed to act, drawing from situations where there is an abstract, faceless authority present; TV intro sequences, call centre ‘on hold’ music, public information posters and guided meditation videos. Repetition and reiteration of an image or concept is how something becomes ingrained in a person’s mind.

<UNLEARN> by Kate Liston and Dan Wilde is an ongoing body of work that exists here in its second form. Employing the instructional spatial gesturing implicit in public display stands the work harnesses the power of repetition and reiteration that is a common tool in guided self-help practices, state controlled public awareness campaigns, school language and maths learning, brainwashing by cults and for the reinforcement of brand identity.

UNLEARN is collaborative iterative installation originally made for an event at The Northern Charter, Newcastle and subsequently shown in Exchange Project at APT Gallery, London and in FIGURE ONE, BALTIC39 Newcastle. Images from The Northern Charter.