
hands my in head my clasped
2022
The McManus, Dundee
by Hattie Godfrey
hands my in head my clasped was a 4 hour performance in the Mcmanus Art Gallery's Victoria Gallery on 29th October 2022, from 12 until 4pm.
The work was made in response to the MacLennan Archive at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design as part of the Arts & Humanities Research Council funded project Beyond the Archive. The collaborative project involved two visits to the archive as well as time with Alastair Maclennan before the presentation of three concurrent performances, SILIBANT MISCIBLE by by Alaistair Maclennan, Memento Mori Rabindranath X Bhose and Hands My In Head My Clasped by Hattie Godfrey.
Hattie's statement for Hands My In Head My Clasped reads:
Hands My In Head My Clasped occupies The Victoria Gallery, The Long Gallery, and the spiral staircase. It includes the installation of a three walled structure made from steel and scrim, through which we can both see, and not see, the black-clad figure inhabiting the space. A pattern develops: gently she leaves her vacant house and retrieves one of the 33 pairs of shoes that line the ornate, sweeping staircase.
MacLennan’s soft tones emanate from the artist’s body, he speaks of sunshine, of apples and of hens; both artists are present and absent. It is time to go home, and so she returns, disappearing amongst her walls as she cares for neglected space.
More details can be found at The Alastair MacLennan Archive, Bbeyond and The McManus Art Gallery
Photography by JamieDonald





