What is (the) Time? sees the artist send letters asking people 'what is the time?', and build an archive from their replies.
Paula Morison's What Is (the) Time? is a collaboration with Radar at Loughborough University exploring time in relation to the ways in which we communicate. Over the first half of 2021, Morison has been sending letters to people - friends, academics, artists, old acquaintances and more besides - to ask what the time is. The responses have taken a range of forms: concise and literal, philosophical, artistic, and lost-in-the-post. Some didn't respond at all.
This body of letters will now be curated into an archive which, with letter writers' permission, will be made available for public presentation. An event, hosted in collaboration with Radar, will bring Paula into conversation with correspondents to explore the relationship between time, communication and connection. This will take place on Friday 9th July, 2-3.30pm find details and booking HERE.
This commission is a collaborator with Radar. During 2020/21 Radar are commissioning and showcasing artistic work exploring time, and related concepts, in collaboration with Loughborough University's Institute of Advanced Studies' year-long focus on the topic.
Paula's project is inspired by a friend of the artist whose boss regularly called her up, from his mobile phone, whilst in his car, to ask her what the time was. Paula was interested in the absurdity of these interactions. She intends to use this absurdity to examine time as a concept, (especially human-constructed time) and to see how technology impacts our relation to it. She also hopes to discuss ways we communicate, in a year when we have faced huge differences in our approaches to both time and communication.
Paula Morisonwas born in Swindon in 1985. She studied at University of Wales, Institute Cardiff from 2005-2008 and Slade School of Fine Art, London from 2017-2019. She lives and works in London.
Paula’s work is conceptually led and uses a variety of media. Her research focuses on how humans try to exert perceived control over their existence and how an individual might navigate various systems during this quest. She loves data, time and things that can be measured and recorded. Recent projects include Time Well Spent, a performance during which the artist aims to sew on a 1:1 scale map of a flat for the length of time it would take to buy that space in London; Wildfire (01.05.14 – 20.03.18), a digitally printed newspaper containing four years’ worth of collected news stories about wildfires; and Shipwrecks and Where There Are No Shipwrecks, a series of screenprints documenting where shipwrecks are and aren’t located around the British Isles.
In 2018 Paula was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries which toured to South London Gallery, London and Liverpool School of Art & Design during the Liverpool Biennial. The same year she was also the recipient of the Red Mansion Art Prize which enabled her to undertake a month-long residency in Beijing. In response to this trip, she made work around language, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in May 2019. During 2019 Morison also exhibited at g39 in Cardiff, Daniel Benjamin Gallery in London and PS Mirabel in Manchester, and was shortlisted for The Clifford Chance Purchase Prize for printmaking. In 2020 Morison completed her first solo show in London at A Room Upstairs Gallery.