judy spark

JUDY SPARK

Led by both direct experience and by philosophical enquiry, Judy Spark explores the contrasts and parallels that exist within ourselves as humans embedded in a technological culture which increasingly alienates, and as embodied humans in our more natural surroundings, in which we are no longer fully comfortable either. This existence of many contemporary humans, characterised by an increasing reliance on technology, in tandem with necessarily fairly high levels of environmental consciousness, makes for disjointed relationships between humans and nature, humans and technology, and within human relationships themselves.

Nevertheless, implicit within the work, is the notion of hope and of wonder, especially in relation to the "natural" and the question of whether these attitudes towards the world are ones that are masked by our relationship with technology. There may just be a possibility that a better appreciation of the technologies on which we depend so heavily, might themselves furnish meaning within that relationship.

The artist has a long-standing fascination with the acoutrements through which humans appropriate the Earth's 'natural energies'. For her, these energies encompass not just those regarded as 'natural resources', but include those harnessed in the transmission of radio, television, and communications signals. Now, we tend only rarely to understand how these things work, and in what ways they relate to 'nature'. Unaware of the connection between ourselves and other living things, always in communication with elsewhere, paradoxically, it can seem that we are alone.

There are fascinating facts about Cupar's relationship with technology to be found in the town's history: In 1927, AT&T initiated the first transatlantic commercial telephone service, and, although designed to link London and New York, the British General Post Office Station at Cupar was designated to receive the radiotelephone signal, which came from Radio Central, Rocky Point, New York, which was then passed to Rugby Radio Station. In 1942, one of the "listening stations" run by the Foreign Office existed at Hawklaw, just outside Cupar, gathering transmitted material to be examined by the code-breakers at Bletchley Park. After the war, right up until 1988 when it was decommissoned, it functioned as a "GCHQ-controlled Y station", intercepting messages, primarily from the Eastern Block. There are planning proposals in place for the remaining buildings to be converted for residential use.

In conducting further enquiry into these, what seem to be, little-known aspects of Cupar's place in radio/telephone history, an interesting backdrop to present-day Cupar is formed, more easily connected by the forests of TV aerials, masts, satellites, digital networks, and wireless technologies that characterise, and sometimes frustrate, contemporary life. It is hoped that the work will add another dimension to the experience of both Cupar residents and visitors, stimulating interest in contemporary visual art practice, while shedding some light on the variety and range of ideas that it explores or embodies.