Affect Collective is a collaborative project between Salisbury based artist Elise Darlow and Winchester based artist Lydia Keith. Central to our investigation is the relationship between sculpture and performance. Can the installation of a sculptural object be presented as a performative act? Can sculpture perform? Do the props used within performance take on object status when presented outside of their original context? And how are these questions heightened when the work exists outside of the gallery space? In our individual studio practices we have been researching these different disciplines respectively. By coming together to explore the seemingly incompatible emphasis on form and function, the richness of our investigation comes from mapping the territory between the two.

For coexist, we present a series of items and accompanying texts that attempt to address the questions outlined above. The status of these items, whether considered as props from performances or sculptural objects in their own right, remains undefined. The viewer is also left uncertain as to whether they refer to past works or those yet to be realized. By deliberately obscuring the purpose these items exist for, we ask the question of what happens when they attempt to coexist.

Affect Collective, 2013