Miroslaw Balka: Random Access Memory

‘Random Access Memory’ by Miroslaw Balka at Mason’s Yard is a new work that links and transforms each of the gallery spaces.
Throughout his practice, Balka has emphasised how the viewers’ experience and their negotiation of space is fundamental to meaning. In this exhibition, he reflects on this through a radical artistic gesture, whereby both floors of the gallery are partially blocked by heated metal walls spanning the entire width of each space.

The title for the exhibition, ‘Random Access Memory’, refers to the complex form of computer data storage that we all use but do not necessarily comprehend, as well as to more generalised conceptions of ‘memory’, both in terms of the personal and the collective. It can also be seen as a reflection on our current political climate in which access to memory and history is often deliberately manipulated or even denied.