TESTS

YOU

'Russian Dolls' Golden Thread

Belfast 2012

 

Participants entered a brightly lit waiting room. Two men with name badges saying ‘THEY’, instructed them to sit and read the instructions on the screens. One at a time the participants were called forward to enter a maze constructed by a series of 9ft high curtains. They must first wash their hands with sanitizer and were given a clipboard with a questionnaire to fill in. Four tests were delivered by television authorities on wheeled hospital stands. The final test was an electric chair (made by artists Euan Ogilvie and Liam Fogerty). At the end of the maze, participants were instructed to put their questionnaires in the medical waste bin - their answers would never be read. 

EXAMINATION

Featuring Euan Ogilvie and Lorraine Hamiliton

UNIT Belfast 2013

 

A Scottish man dressed as a doctor in female clothing asked the viewer a series of True or False questions relating to shame, morality, disgust and secrecy. They have been taken from various psychopathological tests such as MMPI-2, which is still used by courts and employers to ascertain the mental state of an individual. The Doctor remained stern and cold throughout the questioning creating a tense and uncomfortable atmosphere. Six framed drawings were hung on the walls. They resembled the Rorschach inkblot tests, but due to the fleshy colouring and deliberate outlines they appear to represent female genitalia. 

SEMINAR 

(ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY)

'The Fish That Never Swam' Barnes Building

Glasgow 2010

 

A hoax seminar in the lecture theatre at The Glasgow School of Art, advertised using forged posters with the university logo. Students entered the lecture theatre and signed in. They sat and watched a ‘television lecturer’ showing the Alain De Botton documentary ‘Status Anxiety’, watched over by a still image of eyes on the projection screen. Clear plastic sheep masks hung on the lecture theatre chairs. Students were given an 8-page handout. This contained drawings and diagrams as well as uncitied extracts from scientific texts, gossip magazines and advertisements.