Paula Barrett- Irish Artist

KAIROS CAPTURED 2009

This piece emerged from research into the effect of representation on corporeal experience of place, from a reflection on the structure, form and manifestations of ideologies, and the question; what are the possibilities and conditions of control and agency on the part of the individual subject?

Central to both the form and concept of the work is consideration of the participatory event. Moments of complete engagement and immersion are considered. Two factors are central to this idea of the participatory event: the existential experience of time and the conditions of choice and agency of the individual.

While the Greek word kronos refers to chronological or sequential time, the word kairos signifies a momentary break in the determined narrative of chronological time, a fleeting moment of opportunity. Thus kairos represents a significant and decisive moment of empowerment. Chance and determinism are prerequisite in this discourse of internal and external power.

When speaking of the Aristotelian articulation of ‘the citizen’ as ‘he who partakes in the fact of ruling and the fact of being ruled,’ French philosopher Jacques Rancière elaborates, ‘This formulation speaks to us of a being who is at once the agent of an action and the one upon whom the action is exercised’. Rancière continues to say that ‘everything about politics is contained in this specific relationship’ and he proposes that this ‘part-taking’ should be interrogated as to its conditions of possibility. *

*(Rancière, J, ‘Ten Theses on Politics’, Theory & Event, 5:3, 2001)