Eva Fàbregas How are you feeling today? 5-30 November, 2015
Opening 5 November, 7-9pm
Window Space
59-63 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7PF
How are you feeling today? is a site-specific intervention for the Window Space by London-based artist Eva Fàbregas. In her work, Fàbregas explores the secret life of things and everyday objects, approaching them as social actors through which our feelings, affects and desires circulate. This exhibition is the first of a series of works in which the artist brings back to life Clippit, the infamous Microsoft Office assistant created by the multinational corporation in 1996. Popularly known as ‘Clippy the Paperclip’, this animated cartoon character was based on experimental research into human-computer interaction, which examined the unconscious responses of consumers in order to design an interface that could allow users to build an emotional bond. The Office assistant was once ubiquitous, and so its shape is immediately recognisable even today. The Paperclip has become an avatar, a figure of mediation. In its new incarnation, Clippy the Paperclip signals the mediating role of different actors in the exhibition space by drawing attention to those entities that normally sit in silence, that are rendered invisible, that are made redundant, transparent, mute. In Fàbregas work, the paperclip is both an instrument and a sign of the agency of things. For this exhibition at the Window Space, Fàbregas has created a microclimate that causes condensation to form when temperatures drop. While this operation obscures the view from the street, it also has the paradoxical effect of making tangible the glass as a layer of mediation. Fàbregas intervention for the Window Space celebrates as well as multiplies these layers of mediation, inviting the audience to consider how indirect, devious, complex, and mannered is our access to the non-human world and its inhabitants. How are you feeling today? is the third exhibition in the framework of the ‘Figures of Speech’ programme introduced by Cristina Ramos. The project aims to use specific literary devices to contextualise its exhibitions, and will continue on various other locations after the Window Space. Eva Fàbregas (b. Barcelona, 1988) is an artist based in London. She holds an MA in Fine Arts from Chelsea College of Art & Design. Recent solo exhibitions include The Green Parrot, Barcelona, 2014; Kunstraum, London, 2014; PlazaPlaza, London, 2013; Caja Madrid, Barcelona, 2012. Recent group shows include Centre d’Art La Panera, Lleida, 2015; Fabra i Coats Centre d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona, 2014; Can Felipa Arts Visuals, Barcelona, 2013; and Fundación Botín, Santander, 2012. Cristina Ramos (b. Tineo, 1989) is an independent curator. She holds an MA in Curating from CASS and has worked at a number of galleries including Matt’s Gallery (London) and A Certain Lack of Coherence (Porto). Recent curated exhibitions include A leap of faith, The LivingRoom, London, 2015; del uno sin el otro, Tenderbooks, London, 2015; As the extension so the force, FOS #2 Window Space, London; But soft, what light, FOS #1 Window Space, London, 2015; Feel the Discourse!, Guest Projects, London, 2015 and Las Pointes, Passatge Studio, Barcelona, 2014. Image courtesy of the artist.