Every two days in October, each of our fifteen exhibiting artists will show one framed artwork in the ‘front window’ of our online gallery.
Research has shown that gallery visitors spend only 15-30 seconds viewing each artwork – and even less when scrolling through art on online. All Mouth’s consistent project, since the gallery’s founding in March 2020, has been to propagate an environment for ‘slow looking’, the experience of spending an extended period of time viewing just one artwork, and to promote this as an antidote to the hastiness of image consumption.
To look slowly is to spend time considering your own perspective, to be mindful of how it feels, and to potentially question that position. In a capitalist society, the clock is always ticking. We intend this ‘slow’ exhibition not to be a project based on connoisseurship or fetishism, but a series of encounters that encourages owning some time for yourself, and learning, through looking, how it feels to encounter a different way of seeing to your own.
It may seem counterintuitive to try ‘slow looking’ in an online environment conditioned by instant gratification and speed, but the virtual experience of viewing art is also detached from the reverential etiquette that one can feel pressured to perform in a museum atmosphere. Alone with your screen, you can take time, look closer, and be calm. Try to spend at least five whole minutes with yourself and one piece, let your eyes wander across the image, pay attention to your response, and revisit artworks throughout the month to slow down again.
‘Hung Up’ will also be on view at The Hackney Tub from 2 – 4 October. PV on Friday, 2-8 pm.
Unit 2, Broadway Market Mews, Hackney, London E8 4TS
(Booking is not required, all welcome)