#CASathome: Twenty Six (Drawing and Falling Things), by Paul Harrison and John Wood

This film was online from 12.00, 15 April 2020 to 12.00, 18 April 2020

This week, Paul Harrison and John Wood have very kindly given permission to show six films from the Twenty Six (Drawing and Falling Things) series that the Contemporary Art Society donated to The New Art Gallery Walsall in 2003.

John Wood and Paul Harrison make single-channel videos, multi-screen video installations, prints, drawings, and sculptures that elegantly fuse aesthetic research with existential comedy. The artists’ spare, to-the-point works illustrate the triumphs and tribulations of making art and having a life. Wood and Harrison employ exuberant invention, subtle slapstick, and a touch of light-hearted melancholy to reveal the inspiration and perspiration — as well as the occasional hint of desperation — behind all creative acts.

Twenty Six (Drawing and Falling Things) consists of a series of 26 short films, each between 20 seconds to 3 minutes in length, in which the artists use simple slapstick and concise artistic actions to explore rhythm and synergy within different surroundings.

Twenty Six (Drawing and Falling Things) was shown at Chisenhale Gallery, London in 2002 in an installation that featured 26 monitors simultaneously showing 26 different video works distributed across the space. A series of columns reaching from floor to ceiling each housed a monitor, showing an individual experiment in endurance, absurdity, fear and trust. They have toured internationally since 2001 and in 2008 this work was displayed at Number 10 Downing Street, Courtesy of The Government Art Collection.