|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
B21 Gallery, Dubai |
|
REZA ARAMESH
BETWEEN THE EYE AND THE OBJECT
FALLS A SHADOW...
14 April - 07 May, 2009
Private view: Monday, 13
April, 7.30 - 9.30 PM
Conflict is the material from which Reza
Aramesh crafts his work. Such conflict may reside in
social rejection or alienation, in the uncomprehending meeting
of cultures, in the affirmation of discordant stereotypes, in
the imposition of gender roles, in recourse to armed violence.
Aramesh's work is not autobiographical by intention or in
fact, nor does it provide a visual history of conflict.
Rather, his pieces draw on recent history, as reported by the
media and filtered through an individual sensibility, to make
palpable the tensions, contradictions and overt or implicit
violence that are ubiquitous in the world of the early
twenty-first century.
Aramesh was born in Iran and is working in London. After
studying Chemistry he obtained a Masters Degree in Fine Art at
Goldsmith's College, London, first turning his attention to
painting and text pieces. Since 2001 he is engaged in a series
of works which he refers to as Actions. He sets up scenarios
or devises events that may or may not be witnessed by
audiences, and which in all cases survive as still photographs
or multi-screen video projections.
The current exhibition is devoted to Aramesh's most
recent series of works, begun in 2008 and collectively bearing
a title Between the eye and the object falls a
shadow.... Western art history provides the point of
departure as Aramesh comprehends these photographic works as
an extension of the Disasters of War by Francisco de
Goya created in the 1810s. Goya's aquatint prints form a
caesura in the history of the depiction of war. In some of his
most extreme sheets, Goya creates compositions from mutilated
bodies and body parts more akin to the animal carcasses in
seventeenth-century still life painting than to the
explorations of the narrative and pictorial potential of
warfare as they are common in the history of art.
The photographic tableaux created by Aramesh are akin to
Goya's sheets in that specific narrative content is drained
from them, but they differ from most of Goya's prints in
minimizing references to motion being performed, violence
being perpetrated as we look. There are no weapons, nor are
there any instruments of torture or confinement. We do not
witness aggression, we observe characters frozen in their
respective gestures, of oppressor, of oppressed, by situations
of conflict. His photographs display a stillness commonly
associated with still life painting.
Aramesh's scenarios are staged indoors, in homes ranging
from affluent modern apartments to lavish historical mansions.
The suggestion that wealth and financial interests are
fundamentally intertwined with warfare is thus a common
feature of all works of this series.
His photographs are based on imagery provided by news
agencies, sourced from daily papers and the internet. Each
photograph bears as its individual title the caption of its
photographic source, from which the artist choose some figures
and make some compositional decisions. Nonetheless the image
appears subtly but significantly transformed, first and
foremost by the lavish setting. Furthermore, the characters,
of different ages in the source image, are now young men of
approximately the same age. All participants wear casual
street clothing which, in the case of the two 'guards',
replaces their uniforms. None of the 'guards' holds a gun, and
the 'captives' are no longer blindfolded, creating a tension
between the words of the title and the image. Whilst the
positions of the 'guards' show few modifications, all the
'prisoners' in the final version are given more erect
postures, imbuing their act of submission with energy and
urgency.
Reza Aramesh's work has had solo
exhibitions in London's Platform Gallery (2002), Lawrence
O'Hana Gallery (2004), Mathew Bown Gallery (2007), Zoo Art
Fair (2008). His group shows include 'Into Position' in Vienna
and 'Metropolis Rise' in Beijing (2006), 'Making a Scene' in
Haifa Museum of Art in Israel (2006), 'The Politics of Fear'
at the Albion Gallery, London (2007), and the 'Best of
Discoveries' at ShContemprary 08.
Adapted from catalogue introduction by Thomas
Frangenberg
Image:
REZA ARAMESH, Action 42. Fatah Loyalists at
the Erez Crossing in northern Gaza
flee for the West Bank,
June 2007.
B & W silver gelatin print, 164 x 124
cm, 2008
Courtesy of the artist and B21 Gallery,
Dubai
B21 Gallery
Al Quoz
1
Dubai
United Arab Emirates
+971 4 340 3965
|
|
Johnen Galerie, Berlin |
|
28 March to 25 April 2009
Answer Me (2008) was shot in the abandoned
Buckminster Fuller dome of an eavesdropping station built in
Berlin, in the mid 50s as part of the global Echelon
intelligence-gathering network of NSA for long-range
surveillance during the cold war. It stands atop the
Teufelsberg hill made from the rubble of postwar Berlin, under
which another building designed by Albert Speer is buried.
Based on a dialogue from a note that Michelangelo
Antonioni wrote on the breakdown of a couple, where he wanted
"to shoot not their conversation but their silences, their
silent words. Silence as a negative dimension of speech,"
Answer Me becomes, under the exceptional acoustics of
the geodesic dome, a loud stillness of silencing decibels. The
drama comes under the influence of the building, the
architectural maelstrom whirls the narrative.
As a woman tries to end a relationship, her companion
refuses to listen and plays the drums fiercely, blocking her
voice from reaching him. At times her voice is heard, at times
only her lips seen phrasing it, her voice silenced by his
drumming. Next to her, the skin of a vacant drum vibrates and
responds to the frequencies of the drumming. Amplified by the
dome, those frequencies create not only an audible but also a
visible echo by causing the drumsticks to bounce.
In the exhibition, a snare drum with a built-in speaker
plays to the film's soundtrack that has been remixed in
inaudible frequencies, emphasizing this moment of delay and
amplification. The drumsticks respond to these frequencies and
play to the film. The audible echo in the original context
becomes a visual reverberation in the show.
The opening will feature a drum performance responding to
the snare drum installation, further echoing the resonations
from the film.
The second work on view, Who is afraid of red, yellow
and green (2008) features Berlin traffic lights at night
inhabited by spiders spinning their webs undisturbed by the
interruptions of colour.
Anri Sala was born 1974 in Albania and
lives in Berlin.
Image:
ANRI SALA, Answer Me, 2008
HD Video,
stereo sound, 4'50''. Edition of 6
© Anri Sala. Courtesy
Johnen Galerie Berlin
JOHNEN GALERIE BERLIN
Schillingstr.
31
10179 Berlin
Germany
+49 30 27 58 30 30
|
|
On Stellar Rays, New York |
|
JJ PEET
The TV Show
April 5 - May 10, 2009
On Stellar Rays is pleased to announce a
solo exhibition of NY-based artist JJ PEET
entitled The TV Show. PEET frames the exhibition
within the structure of a television program, including
elements such as the trailer, a series format, and reruns;
produced in video and live broadcast, sculpture, paintings and
photographs. The project expands beyond normal spatial
and temporal parameters of a gallery exhibition, mimicking
actual encounters of the viewer as a networked citizen in our
contemporary culture.
PEET premiered a prelude to The TV Show, in the
form of a daily newscast entitled This Week's
Kernels, during On Stellar Ray's preceding group
exhibition (February 18 - March 29, 2009).
Throughout the course of both exhibitions PEET has been
constructing a clandestine installation of a force obliquely
referred to as The Resistants, which functions as the
protagonist in a broader, albeit indirectly portrayed,
narrative of The TV Show. The Resistants'
presence is in an undisclosed location and in close proximity
to the gallery's exhibition space, though accessible only by
PEET. Evidence of The Resistants' activities will be
visible on a monitor in the gallery, presenting a stream of
live and prerecorded video. The Resistants simultaneously
responds to subjective day-to-day occurrences and broader
socio-political news events as experienced by PEET;
effectively creating a sense of indeterminacy and obscuring
perceived distinctions between time and place, the topical and
political, actuality and delusion.
Central to the exhibition is the weekly presentation
of a new TV Show episode, broadcasted live by PEET
from The Resistants' local station, and viewable in a TV room
in the gallery. The TV Show's first episode will
premiere at the opening reception. Four subsequent
episodes will be broadcasted live each Saturday at
5pm. Reruns will be on view throughout the week.
In addition to broadcast and video, the gallery
exhibition will include sculptures, comprised of objects that
are found, stolen, laboriously altered, constructed from
scratch, and further entangled by the artist. Paintings
on view will be for barter only; exchange values determined by
The Resistants. Like the video and broadcast components
of the show, these objects are activated by PEET's ongoing
project, and provide clues to the elusive nature of The
Resistants.
JJ PEET received his MFA from the
Yale University School of Art in 2006 and his BFA from
University of Minnesota in 1999. The TV Show is
his first solo exhibition in New York.
Image:
JJ PEET, The TV Show, prerecorded and live video
broadcast, 2009
Courtesy of On Stellar Rays, New York
On Stellar Rays
Candice
Madey 133 Orchard Street New York, NY 10002 +1 212
598 3012
|
|
Belfast Exposed Photography,
Belfast |
|
MAZE 2007/8
Donovan
Wylie
27 March - 2 May 2009
Following his widely acclaimed 2004 photo essay The
Maze, Magnum photographer Donovan Wylie
was the only photographer granted official and unlimited
access to the Maze/Long Kesh prison site during its
demolition. Executed over 2 years and counting, with the
demolition dates being continually changed, Wylie's new work
focuses on the empty landscape that surfaces in the aftermath
of the demolition process, showing how this once-enclosed
space is eventually reintegrated with the outside world. The
exhibition combines photographs and film footage of the prison
complex, including helicopter shots, which fully appreciate
the architectural destruction of the massive compound whilst
at the same time reflecting on the destruction of the prison
system.
The prison was opened in 1976 at the height of the
conflict in Northern Ireland. It held both republican and
loyalist prisoners in its eight identical H-blocks. Through
its history of protests, hunger strikes and escapes, it became
synonymous with the Northern Ireland conflict. After the
Belfast peace agreement in 1998, inmates were gradually
released, but the Maze remained open. Between 2002 and 2003
Donovan Wylie spent almost a hundred days photographing inside
the prison. Gradually he came to understand the psychology of
the architecture and its ability to disorient and diminish.
Following a sustained period of peace, and to symbolize the
end of the conflict, demolition of the prison began in 2007.
Wylie returned to the site to systematically record its
demise. The methodical destruction that he witnessed suggests
that the work is moving to a conclusion, but as the site is
returned to the landscape, if offers no conclusions, no
answers.
The exhibition Maze 2007/8 coincides with the launch of
Maze (Steidl), a publication in three volumes which
documents the cycle of construction and destruction of the
prison as its function is defeated by the progression of
history, and Scrapbook (Steidl/Archive Modern Conflict), an
album made in collaboration with Timothy Prus recreating the
authors' personal view of the turmoil in Northern Ireland
during the 1970s and 1980s.
Born in Belfast in 1971,
Donovan Wylie discovered photography at an
early age. He left school at sixteen, and embarked on a
three-month journey around Ireland that resulted in the
production of his first book, 32 Counties (Secker and Warburg
1989), published while he was still a teenager. In 1990 Wylie
was invited to become a nominee of Magnum Photos and in 1998
he became a full member.
Much of his work, often described as 'Archaeo-logies',
has stemmed primarily to date from the political and social
landscape of Northern Ireland. His book The Maze was
published to international acclaim in 2004, as was British
Watchtowers in 2007. In 2001 he won a BAFTA for his film
The Train. He has had solo exhibitions at the
Photographers' Gallery, London, PhotoEspana, Madrid, and the
National Museum of Film, Photography and Television, Bradford,
England, and has participated in numerous group shows held at,
among other venues, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin,
the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and the Centre
Georges Pompidou, Paris.
Maze 2007/08 is supported by Arts Council
Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council.
Image:
Donovan Wylie, MAZE 2007/8
© Donovan
Wylie. Courtesy of Belfast Exposed Photography
Belfast Exposed Photography
The
Exchange Place
23 Donegall Street
Belfast BT1
2FF
Northern Ireland
+44 028 9023 1606
|
|
Robert Mann Gallery, New
York |
|
Mary
Mattingly
Nomadographies
2 April to 23 May 2009
Artist Mary Mattingly has developed an
intriguing creative methodology that integrates photography
with aspects of sculpture, installation, and performance.
Drawing upon the work of whimsical dreamers and recalling
failed utopian projects, yet intermixing Fortune 500 corporate
logos with jaw-dropping landscapes, Mattingly's work engages
conflict with the systems of technology and consumerism.
Rigorous in its research, these multi-form projects begin with
the imagination of a possible scenario and evolve as ad hoc
solutions to the circumstances of living and sustaining. With
Nomadographies Mattingly proposes a world returned to nomadic
roots, following a peripatetic population constantly on the
move. In as much as the protagonists in Mattingly's
photographs are related to pioneers of the American frontier,
they are also products of a Cold War-era bunker mentality.
This spirit is embodied in the recurring image of Mattingly's
"karts." Bicycles piled precariously high with scavenged
cardboard boxes and bound with bungee cords, these mobile
shelters represent a Sisyphean struggle with the remnants of
modern society. Literally crashing out of one of the gallery
walls, a Kart seems a relic from another - ambiguous -
time.
Mattingly has developed parallel series of images, The
Anatomy of Melancholy, which clarify the methodology in the
composite tableaux for which she is known. Operating in a
documentary mode, these photographs - of abandoned missile
silos, a biosphere, Ted Kaczynski's abandoned cabin, and
half-submerged derelict boats - might be considered research
documents from Mattingly's own frequent travels around the
globe. As the representation of a world operating somewhere
between obsolescence and post-tech ingenuity, Nomadographies
may be considered as a sort of travelogue, projecting forth
into the future as it recalls our recent past.
The exhibition at Robert Mann Gallery coincides with the
launch of Mary Mattingly's Waterpod™ project. Conceptualized
and designed by Mattingly, the Waterpod™ is a floating,
sculptural, eco-habitat designed for the rising tides. It will
launch in May to navigate the waters of New York Harbor,
docking at several Manhattan piers on the Hudson River before
continuing onward. As a sustainable, navigable living space,
the Waterpod™ serves as a model for new living possibilities,
DIY technologies, art and design. Mattingly and other artists
will live on the Waterpod™, hosting public events,
exhibitions, and lectures.
Nomadographies is Mattingly's second solo exhibition at
the gallery. Most recently she was shortlisted for the
inaugural Prix Pictet and had a two-person exhibition with Mie
Kjaergaard at Standpoint in London. Mattingly is also included
in the forthcoming exhibition Trouble in Paradise: Examining
Discord Between Nature and Society at the Tucson Museum of
Art. In 2008 she was included in group exhibitions at the
Palais de Tokyo, the Neuberger Museum, and the Thessaloniki
Museum of Photography. Updates on the Waterpod™ Project can be
tracked at www.thewaterpod.org
Image:
Mary Mattingly
In the Navel of the Moon,
2008
Courtesy of Robert Mann Gallery
ROBERT MANN GALLERY
210 Eleventh
Avenue
Floor 10
New York, NY 10001
+1
212.989.7600
| |
|
|
|
|
re-title.com - Independent directories of
emerging & professional contemporary art
Coming Next
April 15-16 - Painting / Drawing
April 22-23 - Sculpture &
Installation
April 29-30 - Photography, Film & Video
May 6-7 - Painting /
Drawing
These newsletter features are an exclusive
service for re-title.com members.
Please contact us
for membership information and to discuss your publicity
requirements in more detail
Individual SPECIAL
ANNOUNCEMENT service NOW available - please ask
for more info
|
|
BM Box 5163
London
WC1N 3XX
United
Kingdom
+44 (0) 870 922
0438 |
| |
