Aaron Angell
Roman Seal Matrix Forgery Demonstration
with Poems by Lucy Mercer
Thu, 11 May 2017, 7 pm
Aaron Angell (*1987, UK) works in numerous media, including reverse glass painting, ceramics, and other sculpture. With a great interest in the particularities of his material he creates maquette-like sculptures for larger environments, which will never be constructed. Angell turns his attention to non-canonical history, simulative or dishonest materials, and literary references including but not limited to the novels of Peter Vansittart and the poems of D.M. Black. His work brings together visual worlds from these diverse areas of interest and merges them into a new whole, a process he describes as composting. At the same time Angell is running Troy Town Art Pottery a radical, psychedelic ceramic workshop for artists.
During his Site Visit event Angell will demonstrate how to copy a Roman seal matrix used to seal a letter. The letter contains a poem by Lucy Mercer (*1988, UK) that will be read during the performance. Angell’s demonstration serves to illustrate how an ancient method of authentication and encryption can be forged and circumvented. The demonstration is followed by a screening of the British science fiction thriller The Final Programme (1973). A contemporary critic, cited on Wikipedia, describes the film as ‘an almost unmitigated disaster,’ with ‘an ending so inane that you will want your money back even if you wait and see it on television.’