Ian Carr-Harris: Inside Stories

Inside Stories traces Ian Carr-Harris’ sustained interest in the construction of meaning through language, exhibiting his 1982 ‘performance’ work in German alongside a body of new works. Inside Stories’ meaning is twofold: it points towards the hidden elements inscribed within stories which allow a reader to bring their subjective knowledge to a text, implicating them as a writer. The title also refers to the breaks between front-page newspaper headlines and the narratives that unfold and expand in the interior pages. These stories might be familiar, or they may face the reader with a reality distinct from their own, but, divorced from their context, they become a site for the reorganization of knowledge. in German replicates the iterative process of learning and, being operated by the viewer, blurs the distinction between audience and performer. The works in Inside Stories revisit pre-existing text, image, and artwork to explore the openness of language and to (re)consider how words are crucial in shaping thought and action.