Gallery 3

Cubbyhouse (Nothing is Certain, said the Curtain)

Ali Noble

Roomsheet

As a collection of sequences, Cubbyhouse (Nothing is Certain, said the Curtain) can be viewed simply as three children, friends, arranging and rearranging mobile sculptures, working freely in collaboration. As I regularly draw upon my lived experience to investigate ideas relating to the limitations of conventionality: motherhood and invisible labour, neurodiversity and standardisation, these ideas also permeate the work. 

I like to imagine mobile curtains as nimble provocateurs; agile agents of re-invention, reclamation, and fantasy, conjuring speculative spaces of joy and poetry. What ideologies are subverted when curtains assert versatility, sensuality and movement in spaces typically defined by fixedness? What new spaces can we create? What of play? What of beauty? Cubbyhouse merges the familiarity of my existing textile-based practise, with the exploration of a new format, video.

I consider Cubbyhouse a visual poem that foregrounds sensuality, movement, and the inherent inventiveness of children. Finally, much of the video remains at half speed to indulge in the drape of the curtains, the folds, and the flow of the fabric. I wanted to invoke lingering, intimacy, immersion, interiority and imagination.

I would like to thank Motel Picture Company for bringing this idea to fruition; to Gotaro Uematsu for installation: to Hannah, Mika and Miro for bringing their enthusiasm, and to Richard Healey-Finlay, my steadfast supporter.