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In a narrow street behind one of the most touristic areas in Central London, a small section of its cobbled surface is faintly illuminated in blue. The source of this light comes from within the gallery Tenderpixel which is currently showing figure finger figure finger figure figure finger – a solo show by Ben Cain (b. 1975, UK), an artist whose practice touches on the interconnectedness between object and subject, and their many shifting possibilities.

The fluorescent strip lamps of the space have been covered with a blue filter, transforming it into a sterilised environment that appears to be in the process of an examination. The room has been taken over by a semi-permanent structure that is built from long, thin strips of wood, arranged both horizontally and vertically to resemble a mezzanine in an unfinished state. Each length contains a number of fingerprints on its surface, a past action that has been recalled, perhaps revealed through a forensic investigation. Although the shafts stand motionless and static in the space, the prints suggest they have been placed here temporarily, as if in pause, waiting for the absent hands to move them.

These fingerprints can be traced from the structure onto the gallery’s floor and walls, and, in contrast to the seemingly random placement, these marks follow a rigid system based upon the length of the artist’s arms, transforming a limb into a unit of measure. The use of a limb is also present in two looping videos screened on monitors underneath the mezzanine structure. They depict white-gloved hands performing in front of a blue backdrop. One hand gently taps the thumb and index finger together; the other rubs them. These movements oscillate between slow and fast – too slow to appear anxious or nervous, but too fast to be contemplative or accidental. Through the repetitive motions, they become something other than a hand, they appear as objects cut off from the rest of a body, although, unlike the fingerprints, they are unable to be identified because of the gloves masking them.

By following the gradually intensifying blue light down the gallery’s stairs, it will lead the viewer to two identical, large aluminium tables which both hold a similar series of photographs displayed in a complete grid system. Within a blue framed background, each image depicts a set of arms similarly cloaked in white gloves turning and twisting a stick that is painted grey in one series and blue in the other. Even though it is the same depiction, the experience is being altered by the blue illumination. Whilst it seems to level the grey tones with the white glove, diffusing the hierarchy between object and subject, the light subdues the blue stick, bringing forth the gloved hand as the image’s focal point. The photographs are not only reminiscent of the previous actions upstairs, but they also suggest the procedural capturing of a meticulously choreographed performance. Despite the gridded format, its system seems to be undermined as the viewer is left unable to discern a beginning or an end. Without this finitude, the artist has revealed the potentials and suggested meanings of bodily movements.

Throughout the exhibition, the viewer is confronted with a display that continuously oscillates between object and subject – is the hand a part of the body or a performing figure? Are the sticks a participant or a tool? By using both animate and inanimate instruments, Ben Cain examines the potentials of these items, inviting a viewer to question their own bodily relationships to the spaces and objects we regularly negotiate.

Ben Cain (b. 1975, Leeds, UK)
Tenderpixel, London
5 June – 4 July 2015

Image credit:
Ben Cain, ‘Figure Finger Figure Finger Figure Figure Finger’, 2015. Photo by Original&theCopy. Courtesy of the artist and Tenderpixel