Luke Jordan Derelict Bodies

derelict bodies, the auxiliary gallery, middlesbrough (uk)

exhibition: 25/10/19 - 09/11/19
(soon to be updated: video)


'An experimental environment, a liminal zone, borderland of the anomalous, in which all forms and dichotomies condense and dissolve in the demonic aesthetic realm, a play enacted with the shadows of reality. An incubator generating new forms and forces in communication with the unknown.

A landscape formed from detritus, lost or discarded objects scavenged from the surrounding area. Sculptural objects which distort, mutate and dissolve the human form; tortured forms approaching the unhuman, and ontologically unstable.

I manipulate sounds recorded on site and from the surrounding area, combining these with unnatural synthesised sounds, unintelligible vocalisations and spoken words of the distorted human voice.

Through performative action I become another entity among many other entities viscerally affecting each other and merging within the landscape'


for 7 days i searched and scavenged the industrial estates and fly tips of middlesbrough, finding objects and materials to cart back to the project space to be put into new combinations and take part in the installation.  I created 1 new text and 1 new sound piece for the exhibition.  I created a second room as a performance site, which i transformed into another installation on the final day of my residency.


sick room / unseen chance and whispering dread / dumb immobility / stumbling between the beds / peeling back the sheets / baptizing the sleeping earth / lay beneath them / lids down / undreaming / pandemoniac / victims of delusion / clothed in flesh / unmarked and unremembered / rattling breaths / shudder of organs / standing erect / pretty lunacies / crack natures molds / leg rotted off / descending again / broken down / motionless / sitting in the dark / obliterated / he did not know / conquering boredom / seeing ghosts / shadow side / spider legged / endless machines / swarming / threshing / unbroken, uninterrupted wail / tangled in the weeds / brought his body to the surface / corpse smell / bitter shadow / subterranean sighs / fatal end