THE MUTE SHALL SPEAK
“My body is everywhere: the bomb which destroys my house also damages my body in so far as the house was already an indication of my body.” - Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre, 1943
The Mute Shall Speak is an ongoing investigation that takes place in the disused Royal Throat Nose and Ear Hospital in London, which closed in 2019. It has since been temporarily co-inhabited by the artist and one hundred others, before its eventual demolition.
During his time there Beck has created multiple projects. By using photography and other mediums, he has made and collaborated in a relentless questioning of the ongoing motif of what it means to live in a temporary transitory space. The results of which converge social document with constructed potentials of his own making.
Over the past 3 years Tom Beck has made sculptures that consist of fragments of disused or disregarded objects found inside the building. Through often labour intensive set-ups, Beck contorts these fragments into forms that sit and often float in space. By taking visual queues from architectural concept drawings, a tension is created between utopian visions of freed form from gravitational limits and the future ruins that surround it. Anticipatory grief haunts the image as the artist acts as a medium for the building.
In a resultant frustration with a time consuming practice Beck began to trace his surroundings using charcoal and graphite on old photographic backdrop paper. Inviting others to join him, massive expanses of the building were recorded. These records now create their own structure as they are witnessed outside of the space they were made in.
Don’t Hit The Wall is a video piece shot and directed by Beck in collaboration with his then roommates choreographer and dancer Alice Laidler and sound designer Nick Clapham. Exploring ideas he had previously expressed photographically, the three makers dwelt on the past of the building and the sensory effects it has on an occupant through sound recordings, movement and moving image.
The underlying narrative of gentrification and urban renewal weaves into each investigation with a frank portrayal of the reimagining of a space set for destruction, The Mute Shall Speak questions the need for constant gentrification and emphasises the importance of affordable living.
During his time there Beck has created multiple projects. By using photography and other mediums, he has made and collaborated in a relentless questioning of the ongoing motif of what it means to live in a temporary transitory space. The results of which converge social document with constructed potentials of his own making.
Over the past 3 years Tom Beck has made sculptures that consist of fragments of disused or disregarded objects found inside the building. Through often labour intensive set-ups, Beck contorts these fragments into forms that sit and often float in space. By taking visual queues from architectural concept drawings, a tension is created between utopian visions of freed form from gravitational limits and the future ruins that surround it. Anticipatory grief haunts the image as the artist acts as a medium for the building.
In a resultant frustration with a time consuming practice Beck began to trace his surroundings using charcoal and graphite on old photographic backdrop paper. Inviting others to join him, massive expanses of the building were recorded. These records now create their own structure as they are witnessed outside of the space they were made in.
Don’t Hit The Wall is a video piece shot and directed by Beck in collaboration with his then roommates choreographer and dancer Alice Laidler and sound designer Nick Clapham. Exploring ideas he had previously expressed photographically, the three makers dwelt on the past of the building and the sensory effects it has on an occupant through sound recordings, movement and moving image.
The underlying narrative of gentrification and urban renewal weaves into each investigation with a frank portrayal of the reimagining of a space set for destruction, The Mute Shall Speak questions the need for constant gentrification and emphasises the importance of affordable living.
