Astronomy for Insects

Published Wednesday 15 August 2007 at 14:30 by Duska Radosavljevic

As the door of what looks like a massive spaceship opens, in walk a couple of jittery Frankensteins, wading through atmospheric lights, music and smoke and willing a blow-up, wind-up marionette to come to life - which it does, breaking into an angular dance!

Welcome to the world of blackSKYwhite - a spellbinding, nightmarish installation which might evoke memories of adolescent angst or - as the case may be on this occasion - of a 1980s sci-fi horror.

There is no plot or story to Dmitri Ariupin and Marchella Soltan’s work which takes its original inspiration from Antonin Artaud. However, its fluid scenic metamorphoses inevitably invite interpretation. This is the beauty of their work - should you find that their tortured, slightly gothic aesthetic agrees with you, you will be able to read into it a number of vaguely familiar scenarios. Thematically I would say that this show is about liberation - whether it be about an insect breaking out of its chrysalis or the Christmas dream of a wheelchair-bound girl. But it will be up to you what you take away from it, and it is bound to haunt you.