Mouth to Mouth: A Phonetic Attraction

For her part in the HARDSELL!! series, Kathleen Peacock presented 'Mouth to Mouth: A Phonetic Attraction', a work based in the media of text and sound. Christchurch trained and now Nelson based, Peacock has been developing a practice fascinated with language - the syncopation of voice and conversation, words either spoken or written.

Peacock's projects are in constant conversation with related works she has completed before them, new projects responding to and developing from previous. 'Mouth to Mouth: A Phonetic Attraction' continued a thread of work exhibited in Nelson's Suter Art Gallery in 2002. As the Nelson exhibition 'Suspended Sentences' combined five recordings of women's speech played together to create a kind of musical quintet, her Physics Room work again pulled apart and mixed together different elements of language with an interest in both the meanings and rhythms of words and speech.

Peacock is also interested in our experiences of space and her work often combines object installation with her recorded soundtracks. 'Mouth to Mouth: A Phonetic Attraction' presented the text and audio based works through inviting the viewer to approach and investigate a series of handmade orange containers in the gallery space, which then reveal/speak the linguistic contents.

Reviews, Essays & Articles
Neurosis language
The Press, 2003 Jan. 22, p. C2
Recent graduates, Robert Hood and Simon Lawrence, exhibition: Through my repeated attempts, I have developed pneumonia. Kathleen Peacock exhibition: Mouth to mouth : a phonetic attraction. Last of the Hardsell!! series.

‘A galling recipe for social control. Possibly’
The Listener, 1 March, 2003, p.61
Blundell, Sally. 

Artscene
The Package, January, 2003
Wood, Andrew Paul 

HARDSELL - BECAUSE YOU WANT IT!
KATHLEEN PEACOCK - Artist Q&A
The Physics Room Annual, 2002