Not a Shred of Evidence

As part of Warwick Arts Centre’s series of commissions to mark its 20th birthday in 1995, the Mead Gallery commissioned Tracy to create an installation for its vast main gallery, curated by Sarah Shalgosky. Tracy made an immersive work that covered the gallery’s walls from floor to ceiling and was made up of series of printed vinyl texts that moved through a range of sizes and tones of greys. The descriptive and highly subjective texts presented the artist’s psychological states and imaginary conversations whilst travelling or on the move in the year preceding the exhibition:

I appear harmless
I am quite alone
I will listen
I could ruin everything for everyone
I sense a creeping fear
I feel elated

The publication Not a shred of evidence was designed by Debi Ani to bring together a series of multi-lingual translations of a story written by Tracy. Working in collaboration with members of the University of Warwick, Tracy’s original text was given to each translator who in turn translated through two or three languages before passing on to the next translator. The purpose was to induce error, mistranslation and the particularities that each language holds before re-translating to the text’s original language – English. The final version of the story had shifted through genders and multiple meanings.

During the design process, designer Debi Ani gave each double-page spread to curator and writer Andrew Renton, who in response wrote a text that formed a commentary to Tracy’s work that was presented as a ‘footer’ at the bottom of each spread.

Not a shred of evidence, Tracy Mackenna
69 Pages, published by Mead Gallery (Coventry, UK), 1997
ISBN-10: 0-902683-36-5 / 0902683365
ISBN-13: 978-0-902683-36-5 / 9780902683365