“Using your inside voice” as a way of telling people to stop yelling and be more discreet is a useful pointed Americanism that sadly hasn’t yet caught on in Britain the way that almost every other has. Kelly Tunstall and Ferris Plock use it while pleading with their boisterous kids to give their neighbours a break on Sunday mornings, but the artistic duo have expanded on the phrase for a new series of individual and collaborative works on show at San Francisco’s FFDG.
Rather than a straightforward reminder to the kids about consideration of others, KeFe (as the two are collectively known) have instead thought of “inside voices” as the sometimes chaotic internal dialogue we all conduct, which through self-examination, criticism and reason shapes our practical actions but is also responsible for our creative direction. Tunstall has recently returned to familiar materials such as pen and ink drawings on tissue paper, and the familiarity has facilitated an easy transfer of the internal to the external. For the Inside Voices show the pair has also worked together on large-scale works including a gallery installation. Closing date for this one is 23 May.
