things that go bump in the night curated by Clare Goodwin and Liz Murray
Cafe Gallery Projects Centre of Southwark Park London SE16 2UA (Tube: Canada Water) Launch event: Sunday 30 March, 2 to 5 pm
Exhibition 2 April to 4 May 2008, Wednesdays to Sundays, 12 to 6 pm With: Edwina Ashton (UK), the Centre of Attention (UK), Anders Clausen (DK), Jay Cloth (UK), Kirsten Glass (UK), Paul Harper (UK), Andrea Heller (CH), Kent Henricksen (USA), John Hughes (UK), Michael James Jones (CAN), Lucy Pawlak (UK), Loredana Sperini (CH)
Nameless (2008) by the Centre of Attention
Using the moment of the exhibition, the Centre of Attention aspires to choreograph sound and movement and image using the visitors and the mise en scene of the exhibition pavilion, and to produce a piece that is both documentation and a work in itself. This work "Nameless" comes out of a concern with God, groupthink, the herd, the need to believe, in something (anything!) to explain the horror, the horror of it all... "The works of this diverse international group collectively describe a world out of kilter. While some appear hewn from conflicting real and fantastical sensibilities others quietly leak the notion that something just isn't quite right. The status quo is referenced through objects, drawings and films in ways that undermine the socially accepted truths on which our experiences are founded. The poetic, morally ambiguous line of an ancient Scottish prayer, to which selected pieces relate, or have been made in response to, was essentially designed to invoke protection from all that we fear: whether tangible perils or existential concerns. Today, though, it signifies more than being pricked by the sharp end of terror. Layers of theological, folklore, literary, film and musical references take us from the socially repressive undertones of the litany to the uncanny nature of gothic horror; from the accidental humour of Hammer and into the innumerable forms of popcultural pastiche that re-package the sentiment as a means of cultural critique. Edwina Ashton's anthropomorphised creatures and objects act out absurdist moments on paper and film that bear acute contemporary relevance despite the retrospecificity of her sources. Peculiar human interactions are fertile ground for John Hughes's audio fiction in which humdrum tittle-tattle is punctuated with unexpected details that throw our voyeuristic position into sharp relief. Narrative characterisation reigns in the very different collage works of part-time vaudeville performer Jay Cloth, Kirsten Glassand the films of Lucy Pawlak. Where Cloth's circus of misfits might have evolved from Dadaist experiments into paranormal activity, Glass's glossy magazine femmes often appear like the glamorous victims of a hostage situation. Pawlak's 'one-man band' approach to film making has resulted in a curious, scientifically observed cast of multiple personalities that (co)exist in a fractured realm beyond the everyday. The departed musician subjects of Paul Harperand Andrea Heller's 'Death Jukebox' project, meanwhile, are very much of this world but the clairvoyant process by which these stars reveal their current musical tastes defies earthly logic. Making processes collide in the hand-stitched works of Kent Henricksen and Loredana Sperini. Henricksen's threaded lithographs describe abject folklore communities whose quasi-cutesy revelry is accented with modern symbology, while from Sperini's slick graphical splurges human, animal and plant forms emerge like fashion ornamentation that refuses to comply with commercial stricture. The authenticity of art itself is appears under question in the works Anders Clausen, The Centre of Attention and Michael James Jones. Clausen trades on the resemblance of his disembodied heads on plinths to traditional figurative sculpture, to disarming affect, while through performative measures the Centre of Attention forces us to deconstruct how art is historicized and consumed. Jones' manipulation of existing film footage both celebrates and alerts us the visual ruses made possible through data manipulation techniques."
Liz Murray, Clare Goodwin
Mejan Labs Royal Academy of Fine Arts Akademigränd 3 112 59 Stockholm Launch event: Wednesday 9 April 2008, 5 to 8 pm Exhibition 10 April to 15 June 2008, Tuesdays to Fridays 11 am to 5 pm, Saturdays and Sundays 12 to 4 pm.
At Mejan Labs, Stockholm, the Centre of Attention provides a remix of 'Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft' (Düsseldorf 2007). The work brings together a number of wabi-sabi strands and foregrounds aspects of our practice in which all that art tries to make invisible we transform into art.
From the outset visitors can make changes to the work by adding, moving, editing and recombining elements, etc.
Gemeinschaft: family (kinship group) tribe - unity of will Gesellschaft: self interest, civil society, contract - sacrifice of will
The open source nature of this work allows visitors to make artistic judgements and statements and to suggest challenges to our artistic and curatorial tropes. Further it allows us to attempt two specific things: a dematerialisation of the audience and an ever evolving/open ended installation.
Questions raised by this piece include whether the group thwarts the intention of the artist; or does a collective response add to the artist's intention?
Nothing lasts, nothing is finished and nothing is perfect. The unstableness of the piece underpins the instability of definitions, of human interaction, of the work's existence and meaning.
The individual is an unstable subject but the subject as object can not avoid an increased entropic fate.
Changing Matters - the Resilience Art Exhibition
Naturhistoriska riksmuseet (Natural History Museum) Frescativägen 40 Stockholm 12 April to 7 September 2008, open Tuesdays to Sundays, 11 am to 7 pm (8 pm on Thursdays)
The Resilience Art Exhibition is a joint project of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, through Mejan Labs in Stockholm and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences through the Beijer Institute and the Stockholm Resilience Centre, in collaboration with the Resilience Alliance. The exhibition will take place in connection with the international science and policy conference Resilience, Adaptation and Transformation in Turbulent Times.
Participating artists: Gunilla Bandolin/Sverker Sörlin (Swe) Jon Brunberg (Swe), the Center of Attention (Fra/Eng), Olle Cornèer, Christian Hörgren and Martin Lübke (Swe), Todd Gilens (USA), Paul Matosic (Eng), Teemu Mäki (Fin), Tuula Närhinen (Fin), Michael Rodemer (Ty/USA), Etta Säfve (Swe), Angelo Vermeulen (Be) and Christine Ödlund (Swe)
Naturkabinettet (2008) On the 12 April 2008 in Stockholm, 50 individuals will be captured, examined, measured, then ringed and released back to freedom. If a ringed specimen is found or spotted, the finder should contact the Centre of Attention with the unique ID number printed on the bracelet and details of where and when the specimen was seen, and what condition they were in. This will allow us to learn more about one individual's trajectory and assemble data related to longevity, survival, migration, feeding behaviour, adaptive capacity and many other aspects. Several sightings will provide a dynamic analysis of his or her social networks, geographical territory and a measure of the specimen's resilience. It is hoped that this scientific approach of differentiation and isolation of a specimen will shed some light on human behaviour and human interactions in and with the natural environment. Documentation related to this work is exhibited in Stockholm's Royal Natural History Museum.
The Centre of Attention, April 2008
'Resilience for dealing with change Throughout history human society has shaped the dynamics of nature and at the same time been shaped by this dynamics. The scale and speed of human actions have now expanded into globally interconnected societies embedded in planet Earth processes at all levels, reflected in climatic and environmental changes affecting people and regions worldwide. Social conditions, health, culture, democracy, matters of security, and even survival are interwoven with ecological systems in a grand panorama of regional and worldwide dependency. To what extent are human societies adapting our capacity for learning and foresight to deal with the new global and challenging situation? What is the role of the cultural sphere in this context? Resilience - the capacity to deal with change and continue to develop - has evolved as a key concept to address such issues. How can we develop capacity to cope with, adapt to and possibly even transform into improved situations in the face of these challenges? Resilience is about dynamic development, how periods of slow and gradual change interplay with periods of rapid and sudden change and how to prepare and respond to such changes. In a resilient society sudden change may lead to new opportunities for development. In a vulnerable society sudden change may be devastating. In what way can the cultural sphere help prepare society to deal with such changes, to revive and regenerate following change and stimulate novelty and innovation for sustainability? The invited artists interpret the notion of resilience, explore and imagine ways for how to take on this major challenge facing human societies.' Curators' statement
Read more about resilience at www.stockholmresilience.su.se; www.resilience2008.org. For further information please contact project manager Frida Cornell, frida.cornell (at) mejanlabs.se , or +46(0)703691529.
