Things That Make The Heart Beat Faster

2021



Letter Height 45cm

Total Length of Work (longest line) 4.18m

Total Height of Work 2.18m

Images by Andrea Pizzalis ©2021 Azienda Speciale Palaexpo

Tim Etchells’ new neon is a fragment from Sei Shōnagon’s The Pillow Book (1002) which gathers the writer’s observations made during her time as court lady to Empress Consort Teishi in Heian Japan. The quotation forms the title of one of Sei Shōnagon’s numerous lists, in this case her catalogue of exciting or exhilarating things, the first item on which is, “Sparrows feeding their young”.

Reproducing the title but not the contents of Sei Shōnagon’s personal inventory of ‘things that make the heart beat faster,’ Etchells’ neon makes a direct call to each viewer, asking them to imagine or summon from experience or imagination things that cause their own pulse to quicken. Echoing Sei Shōnagon, Etchells also draws attention to the general category of human experience of exhilaration or excitement – asking us to think about the desires, pleasures, passions, possibilities, loves and obsessions that might drive, inspire and stir us.

Turning a fragment of an ancient intimate diary into a bold public statement, Etchells also reflects on the relation between the past and the present, the public and the private, the personal and the social or shared. things that make the heart beat faster shifts time and context, asking us to think about the dynamics of our relation with each other, with the natural world and with other beings, objects and events we encounter along the way.

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.

Through simple phrases spelt out in neon, LED and other media, Etchells strives to create miniature narratives, moments of confusion, awkwardness, reflection and intimacy in public and gallery settings. Encountering the neon sign works, in the streets of a city or in the space of a white cube gallery, the viewer becomes implicated in a situation that’s not fully revealed, or a linguistic formulation that generates confusion or ambiguity. As often in Etchells’ work, in the neons the missing parts of the picture are as important as the elements that are present. Invoking a story, or projecting an idea out-of-context, the work invites us in, but into what exactly we can’t be sure.