RUARK LEWIS
AN INDEX OF KINDNESS
JULY 23 – AUGUST 15

OPENS 6–8PM
THURSDAY JULY 23

AN INDEX OF KINDNESS is an ongoing project which sets out to map identity, in the literal sense. If it starts with the mapping of things that are alike, in the most simple sense, it moves quickly into how an idea (a source text, really, e.g. ‘horse’, ‘emotion’) can be identified in different space. But what does it lose as it is enacted in space to space? What does it gain? The INDEX is merely the framing device ­ the name of the quest. This quest may never end, may never be satisfied ­ can the text ever be happy, come to rest? The source text of Nathalie Sarraute’s play SILENCE goes some way to answering these questions. Perhaps this is why Lewis chose it as material for the INDEX ­ to anticipate the textual movements before they arise in the gallery space. In a way Lewis leaves the silences and the silent referents to speak for themselves, among the loud chorus of the signals. He is searching for ways of enacting and enunciating, but he is not the enacter and enunciator himself, even when he performs amongst his works. He remains the archivist rather than author, the transposer rather than the composer, the translator rather than the transporter.

Text by Dougal Phillips