Surrogate viewers

The following texts are an experimental approach to encountering materials in the studio of Carol Rhodes, frozen in time and place, as they were following her death in 2018. With an understanding that entering her studio is an intervention, this collection of writing resists linearity in favour of an approach that draws upon existing methodologies in feminist contemporary art writing and speculative and science fiction fields. The writing is fragmented and visceral, a reflection of my contact with Rhodes’s ephemera. The knowledge of Rhodes I bring to this writing is gleaned from her journals, torn article notes in books, the books themselves, the paintings, her own descriptions of her process, her CD collection and handwritten and typed lecture notes. This selection is intentional, focusing on the mise en place of Rhodes’s work, rather than a historicization or hagiography of her practice.