The Arrival of the Elusive will not be Announced, 2023

Rebecca Collins with Bricks from the Kiln
The Arrival of the Elusive will not be Announced, 2023
Translucent Vinyl
12 Pieces 94.5cm x 2m 85cm

Dark matter has been detected in the space of the gallery, the translucent acid vinyl graphics evidence the arrival of the elusive. The design mixes the graph-like representations encountered in physics research papers with textual forms found in concrete poetry. For the creative process Rebecca Collins worked with design collective Bricks from the Kiln sharing performance writing used in Energies not Forms not Figures and drawings created by members of the Direct Detection Dark Matter Research Group at IFT-UAM. The drawings respond to a provocation proposed by Rebecca Collins, where she asked each group member to imagine how the visual evidence to confirm the detection of dark matter might look. The use of concrete poetry, objects composed of words, letters and typeface in which graphic space plays a central role in design and meaning takes its cue from New Tendencies, a Croatian Marxist collective who sought artistic research methods, alongside scientists, as information aesthetics emerged in the 1960s. This decision emphasises Rebecca Collins’ overarching desire, posited throughout Listening to Dark Matter, to combine artistic research with investigations into new physics, so as to meet contemporary conundrums regarding what we are yet-to-know about our Universe.

Matthew Stuart and Andrew Walsh-Lister are typographers, editors and writers currently based in the UK, where they edit and run the irregular journal and multifarious publishing imprint Bricks from the Kiln. They also collaborate on a range of publishing, editorial and curatorial projects.