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Although Justin Avery's installation, Cell, physically occupied nine square metres of space, it 'filled' the entire room at Soapbox. It consisted of seventy-eight narrow cylinders constructed from calico, stiffened with beeswax and suspended, in a rectangular formation, by thread from the ceiling. Each cylinder hovered between the roof and the floor, humming almost imperceptibly with the vibration of the room, and belying the heartbeat pace of the metronome installed on a low shelf close by. A warm, muted glow emanated from the single globe at the centre of the construction, casting shards of light and shadow that blended with the scent of warm wax, and the dried rosemary scattered underfoot, to complete this multi-sensory performance in which tangible and intangible elements played equal roles.
As a construction which encapsulated the seemingly contradictory qualities of fragility and solidity, segmentation and unity, eel/was essentially an analogy for the interdependence of the components which make up living entities. It explored the idea, perpetuated by eastern philosophy, that we are not autonomous beings but, rather, are the sum of forces and experiences originating, partly, from outside ourselves. In other words, we are our relationships, everything is interrelated and the very concepts of 'identity' and 'autonomy' are mitigated by the circumstances of human existence.
Cell was a metaphor for the self, a self which operates on several inextricable and equally significant levels. As the title of the work implied, one such level was the physiological- the self as a microcosm of interacting cells whose relationships enable the body to function as a united entity. Hence, in the installation, wax cylinders were structured in such a way as to give an impression of corporeality, an