EXHIBITIONS / SIGNALMASTERS

29.09.2011 to 22.10.2011

Signalmasters is an imagined return to the use of non-verbal communication before present day technologies. The exhibition takes as a departure point the now outdated methods of visual signaling used within maritime and aviation safety procedures. The flash of a lighthouse beam, a lit buoy at night, an aircraft signalman’s flag - These gestures act as both a warning against danger and a welcome to land.

Through the use of photography and video, Leyla Stevens isolates and reframes these methods of signaling, to indicate a desire to communicate over geographical and cultural distances. Within this negotiation of distance lies an equal inability to span such gaps of understanding and difference. Signalmasters explores the multiple significations of these simple actions: where a wave of the hand may equally imply a farewell, a beckon, a distress call or a reassurance.

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