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DETOUCHEDDUBLINDetouched isn’t really a word, but if touch involvesmaking contact, then detouched proposes a reversal ofthat action. In the context of Detouched, which wasguest curated by Anthony Huberman for the Project ArtsCentre [January 24–March 30, 2013], this nonwordcarried a slightly different, or perhaps expanded, meaning.Rather than invoking the idea of de-experiencingtactile sensations, the artworks offered something morecomplex in that they promoted intimacy and forestalledit. Touch operated at a remove through the provision ofsimulation and filtered or indirect contact, and throughthe use of machines. These concepts were effectivelyintroduced by the reproduction of a mechanical hand onthe poster used to promote the exhibition. Isolated in awhite field, this slightly macabre and attention-grabbingimage functioned as an appropriate symbol.In the text accompanying the exhibition Hubermanstated that in today’s world touch no longer requiresbeing close to objects. He clarifies this shift, in part, bydescribing how he surveys the morning newspaper. Theprocess has been reduced to turning pages and skimming.The paper is not held and read. He also referencedour use of the Internet to access a seeminglylimitless amount of information. In this example, touchno longer necessitates proximity; instead it brings usclose to things that happen to be very far away. A.K.Burns’ colorful video series Touch Parade (2011) underscoredthese aspects. The artist’s seemingly anonymousre-enactments of fetish videos, sourced from YouTube,provided close-ups of Burns’ limbs pumping vehicularpedals, negotiating a muddy pond, crushing vegetables,struggling to burst a large balloon, and putting on multiplepairs of rubber gloves. Revealing the physical propertiesof a range of materials, these captivating demonstrationswere at once investigative, humorous, andnonsensical, if not altogether strange. The artist’scontact with the materials being manipulated almostalways occurred through other materials and exhibited adegree of inquisitiveness, the intensity of which easilyinduced apprehension in the viewer. Presented simultaneouslyon monitors that ring the entrance to the gallery,the videos were visible from the building’s lobby andthe street outside. This incongruous set of imagescaused people to stop and look. It also formed a permeableborder or threshold through which visitors had topass to take in the rest of the predominantly colorlesspresentation.Negotiating that space provided visitors with a rangeof halting experiences. The hiss of compressed airemanated from the soundtrack of Dennis Oppenheim’sAir Pressure (Hand) (1971), an intimate video thatdetailed the effect this invisible force has on the skin.Seth Price’s eerie Untitled (Masks) (2006), consisted offour identical transparent vacuum-formed faces. Set onein front of the other, they projected out from the wall. Atthe same time the multiple layers of plastic took on ahazy cast, and facial features blurred or dissolved intoone another. In Untitled (2007), Price juxtaposed ghostlyoutlines of hands with plastic-laminated veneers tonegate any directness of touch, and its sense of honesty.Across the gallery’s back wall, Sunah Choi’s large-scalerubbings, Abdrücke (Imprints) (2011–2013), isolatedaspects of the local urban environment through thedocumentation of floorboards, wire mesh screen, tires,and a manhole cover. Forgoing personal interpretationand narrative, Choi’s hands were employed in a very utilitarianfashion to record the textures of materials usedfor travel or on which Dubliners tread. Their presentationnot only caused me to take notice of such unexceptionalfeatures upon leaving the gallery, I felt it had altered myrelationship to the city.Space, place, and the body merged in AliceChanner’s Amphibians (2012), an evocative floor-boundconglomeration of materials that referenced an arrayof production processes and surface treatments.Configured in an undulating arrangement simultaneouslyindicative of a serpent’s movement and an assemblyline, the work also alluded directly to the human formby including aluminum casts of clothing. Moreover, peeringdown at the broad strips of polished stainless steelrevealed the upper echelons of the gallery as well as theviewers’ reflections.In certain respects Detouched came off like a series ofpseudoscientific demonstrations surveying the physicalproperties of materials, spatial relationships, and perception.It explored ways in which we comprehend the environmentand interface with the evolving world of technology.Although the exhibition did not limit itself exclusivelyto an exploration of the hand as the principal instrumentthrough which we experience touch, Detouched highlightedthe hand’s changing role. Huberman’s propositionthat the hand has now merged with the machinereferenced a host of developments, examples of whichrange from keyhole surgery, wherein the surgeon relieson video images to perform intricate procedures fromoutside the human body, to the prevalence of textmessaging,which demands extensive use of the fingers’dexterity to contact individuals and corporate bodiesacross vast distances. This inherently contradictory ideamade it difficult to know how to relate to the work in thegallery. At once dispassionate and objective, the selectionsalso surprised and bewildered. Their complex andhaunting presence not only unsettled me, but also begatongoing speculation about this state of affairs.—John GayerABOVE, LEFT: Alice Channer, installation view of Amphibians, 2012, mirror-polished stainless steel, cast aluminum, machined, hand-carved, and polished marble, elastic; ABOVE, RIGHT:foreground: A.K. Burns, installation view of Touch Parade, 2011, set of 5 HD videos; background: Sunah Choi, installation view of Abdrücke (Imprints) nos. 1, 23, 26, 30, and 38, 2011–2013,frottage, graphite, pastel on paper [images courtesy of Project Arts Centre, Dublin]an index to contemporary culture’s imminent historyARTPAPERS.ORG 59