The Ring Mechanism
Neil Chapman (2004)
‘Corpse rotting in gutter: the first words present a vivid enough picture. Looking down, I observe and record that, even in the grey light, the body can be seen to be most likely that of a young man. Its orientation is described with the aid of diagrams; he lies on his front, his neck twisted in such a way that the left side of the face is visible; the arms are straight, with only the left in view; the body is jammed hard against the kerb… I have found no evidence of obvious damage to the body, except for some grazing to the left cheek… Within a few hours, large numbers of larvae will hatch and will accelerate the process of change that has already begun within the developing environment of the body.’
The Ring Mechanism is an interrogation of creative production. Neil Chapman has developed a convergence of text, presented as a fictional account of the emergence of significance from everyday banality and detail. The discussions that arise in this book are specifically aimed at a visual art audience and self-reflexively probe the categorisation of such work − seemingly falling between criticism, theory and philosophical aesthetics − questioning its reading as a critical model of production or a process of splicing and deciphering, that may after all, end as a terminal disintegration of sense.
