Rotters

Rotters is a situation for four sculptures over 22 minutes, running continuously.

Rotters Installation View (Entry|Exit) Malachy Harvey — Installation View (Entry|Exit)

Rotters Installation View (Entrance Detail) — Installation View (Entry|Exit)

‘A kangaroo court in a store room, Rotters (2019) holds four sculptures in a looped dialogue. Two interrogators—Sparky the school locker, and Swall the watchtower—push the reticent Rotter the perspex box, for ‘FACTS’. Haunted by the looming presence of So-N-So and the pressure of uncomfortable memories, Rotters scene-of-the-crime is a collision between different forms of inquest.’

Rotters’ installation consists of 4 sculptures, synched lighting and speakers. Each sculpture is a character named in the script. Two of the characters Sparky (the steel school locker) and Swall (a watchtower) are interrogating a third, Rotter (a Perspex box) about the whereabouts of So-n-So (a sheet of safety glass). So-n-So is in fact in the room but this is never fully acknowledged by the other characters, though monologues memories in a streaming fashion. Rotter throughout remains mute. The sculptures are ‘animated’ by the structuring conceit of a motorized, synched light, which picks out the speaking or mentioned sculpture and the use of spatialized sound. The lines for each speaking character are voice-acted.

With Kirsty Clark and Samson Dittrich.
Thanks to Jon Roome and Ghislaine Leung.

Image from draft script of Rotters in New Contemporaries 2019 Catalogue

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The primary instance of the work is the above installation format,
however Rotters was also adapted as an abridged 4 minute version for C4 Random Acts:

Camera: Oliver Bradley-Baker
Voices: Kirsty Clark, Samson Dittrich, MKH, Rotter
Producer: Catherine Bray
Commissioning Assistant: Jake Cunningham

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