This new work – full text ‘continue without accepting’ – continues Etchells’ interest in forms of language which surround us in the space of electronic and computer-mediated communication. Its simple three-word phrase recalls statements which websites, software and other electronic systems use to frame their demands that users accept or refuse compliance with license agreements, terms and conditions. The specifics of the particular phrase Etchells has chosen are complex – it’s a phrase that both appears to demand our acquiescence and at the same time asserts an intention for the user not to comply with some unstated demand. Stripped of its context, and read plainly as a statement,  the phrase appears as an imperative or direct call to action – we are asked to continue in something undefined – a specific work task, perhaps, or a way of living – but without accepting its terms. What might have been, in context, a statement of acquiescence becomes a slogan calling for stoical resistance.

About Tim Etchells’ neon and LED works
Etchells’ neon and LED pieces often draw on his broader fascinations as an artist, writer and performance maker, exploring contradictory aspects of language – the speed, clarity and vividness with which it communicates narrative, image and ideas, and at the same time its amazing propensity to create a rich field of uncertainty and ambiguity.