Cally Spooner 'Carol, I Think My Place In History Is Assured'
Preview 6 June 2013 6-8pm until 13 July 2013
‘Pat!’ bellows Harry. ‘C’mon in. Have a chair, have a cigar, have anything you want but don’t touch the table.’ He indicates a coffee table. ‘It’s worth a fucking fortune and I know what you’re like with your little accidents.’ The Screenwriter nervously skirts the table, taking care to sit in an immovable armchair. The chair is wide and low backed and the Screenwriter has no idea how to sit in it with assurance. Eventually, he settles on the very edge, which he knows made him look weak, though this is better than lazy, because Harry hates lazy fuckers, and the Screenwriter is not, he hopes, lazy. ‘Pat’ shouts Harry, ‘you’re fucking lazy.’ The Screenwriter sits straighter. ‘Harry, it’s boiling, it’s summer.’ ‘Do I look like it’s summer?’ The Screenwriter looks at Harry, sitting commandingly in a leather swivel chair, behind an enormous, tidy desk. His shirt is clean, unmarked, held together neatly with a tie, and there isn’t a bead of sweat anywhere, because his girl has put on the fan. ‘No,’ he says. ‘You look normal.’ ‘Sure I look normal. Everything is so fucking normal. And I’m bored. That’s why I brought you here. It’s time to inject some new life into the project.’ The screenwriter hopes he doesn’t look too excited. ‘I’m tired of all this junk that’s flying around. I want to bring some newness in, and I think you’re the man for the job. So, let’s start here. I want to know how this,’ he holds up a photo, ‘and this,’ he holds up another, ‘are gonna come together.’ ‘Sorry, Harry. I don’t get it.’ ‘Pat,’ he waves the pictures, ‘you’re fucking lazy. Look harder.’ The Screenwriter squints. Then he actually has to pull himself out of the soft chair, which isn’t easy. ‘It’s Judy garland. And...’ he screws up his eyes. ‘Hitler?’ ‘No! Fuck’s sake Pat, no. That’s not Judy.’ ‘Oh yeah, sure.’ ‘Here, look.’ ‘Sure.’ ‘Pat.’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘I need you to write me a musical.’ ‘A what?’ ‘About the war.’ ‘WHAT!’ ‘Pat, sit up. You look stupid, and I can’t put a stupid man on this job. I need a good man, with a flair for structure. So what do you think?’ ‘I dunno, Harry... I mean, what’s the gist?’ ‘Here’s an example.’ He pushes a treatment across the table. ‘We keep it simple. You’ve been wanting to work from scratch for a while so here you go; a few pointers, a few ideas, a general sense of direction, characters, in progress, but overall, this is your baby Pat. And you can do exactly what you want. Within reason.’ ‘Harry I don’t know. I don’t know anything about musicals. Or the war.’ ‘Sure you do.’ He booms. ‘We all do.' ‘Not in detail.’ ‘Pat.’ Harry leans over his desk. ‘If I wanted detail, I’d have called someone else.’
MOTINTERNATIONAL Brussels is delighted to present Cally Spooner's first solo show with the gallery. The artist will present a Book [1], and a U Turn [2]. The show operates as a bridge between two bodies of work, one of which is closing, the other just beginning.
1. Collapsing In Parts was a year long solo show with International Project Space now 'settled' in to a novella, published by Mousse.
2. And You Were Wonderful, On Stage is a new Musical. The production evolves as it moves between institutions, beginning at the Stedelijk Museum in April. With musical direction and composition by Peter Joslyn, and a growing cast of performers, the musical has so far re-staged a number of current affairs where instances of automation parade as liveness, and performance promises are met, then broken. Characters include Beyonce's lip sync at Obama's Inauguration, Lance Armstrong's Oprah Winfrey confession, and British MP Michael Gove's education plans, which U turned last February.
Cally Spooner (1983; Ascot, UK) is based in London.
Recent solo exhibitions and performances include And you Were Wonderful, On Stage, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2013); Seven Thirty Till Eight, Kunsthal Charlottenburg, Copenhagen, Denmark (2013); Collapsing In Parts, International Project Space, Birmingham, UK (2012); Cally Spooner: Footnote 5, (with Dulcie Lewis and Peter Joslyn), ICA, London, UK (2012); It’s 1957, and the Press Release Still Isn’t Written, Hermes und der Pfau, Germany (2011).
Group exhibitions include Relaunch, KW Institute, Berlin, DE (2013); A Spoken Word Exhibition, Jeu De Paume, Paris, France (2013); Memory Marathon, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2012); And Yet There They Still Are, with Sidsel Meineche Hansen, LUX, London, UK (2012); I Proclaim You Proclaim We Proclaim, Stroom, The Hague, NL, curated by Capucine Perrot (2012); Outrageous Fortune, Focal Point Gallery, Southend on Sea, UK (2011); Une Exposition (du) Sensible, Synagogue Du Delme, France (2010); Session_6_Lecture, Am Nuden Da, London (2009); Two Lectures, Neue Alte Breuke Gallery, Frankfurt (2008).
MOTINTERNATIONAL
LONDON First Floor, 72 New Bond Street, London, W1S 1RR
BRUSSELS Rue Vandenbrandenstraat 1, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
"I use light as a material to work the medium of perception, basically the work really has no object because perception is the object. And there is no image because I am not interested in associative thought."
- James Turrell
PIPPY HOULDSWORTH GALLERY, London presents RUTH CLAXTON - Specular Spectacular
7 June - 6 July 2013
Specular Spectacular is a complex maze that occupies the 'centre stage' of the gallery.
Interconnecting structures hold mirrors that both become part of and reflect the installation itself.
Worlds within worlds are housed here, and inhabited by found figurines that are themselves swallowed up by amorphous reflective masks.
Icelandic nature is prominent in Eliasson's work, and his artistic relationship with it often involves collection or documentation that is scientific in tone. The country becomes a sensory laboratory where ideas can be developed and evolved into art, as evidenced in the multiple photographic series that would seem to witness a near compulsive need for collecting.
