9 Balfour Mews London W1 GABRIEL KURI 14 October � 22 November 2008
69 South Audley Street London W1 SARAH LUCAS Penetralia 14 October � 15 November 2008
35 Heddon Street London W1 FLORIAN HECKER 14 October � 22 November 2008
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SARAH LUCAS Penetralia
14 October � 15 November 2008 private view 18 October 2008
69 South Audley Street London W1
1. The innermost parts of a building, especially the sanctuary of a temple. 2. The most private or secret parts; recesses: the penetralia of the soul.
In this exhibition of new sculpture, her first in London since Perceval at the Serpentine Gallery in 2006, British artist Sarah Lucas exhibits a series of objects assembled from plaster casts of penises and flint. The variations on this formal starting point are like the haul of an archeological dig in the manner of a collection of Cycladic torsos or polytheistic relics, the repetition underlining its potency and timelessness, and the dynamism of the phallus as metaphor. The combination of the casts with flint references the presence of flint objects in the vaults and cabinets of archeological museums, mostly as examples of early weapons or fire-making tools, which marries with the potential power in an erection.
The Penetralia sculptures sit comfortably in the context of Sarah Lucas�s body of work, its principal position a challenge to ideas of gender stereotypes and sexual allegory. These new sculptures can be seen as the dogged examination of the phallic form itself, set out for consideration of shape and loaded subject. Lucas has justified the use of the cock and balls in her work in the past, an early example being Things from 1992, a wire penis covered with unlit matches or the papier-m�ch� collage Cock and Spare Balls of the following year, claiming the male organ to be the perfect stand-alone ready-made sculpture. Beer Can Penis, an unlimited series started at the Koln Art Fair in 1998, was made by Lucas for customers at the fair by splicing two beer cans together to form the required shape, and in these previous sculptures the potent sexual content was as central a component in her work as the formal experiment. The linguistic element in Lucas�s work is always as loaded as her choice of material, the title of her 1990 show Penis Nailed to Board being a good example of her mastery. This exhibition�s title, Penetralia, is a real word that is both serious and evocative, and above all suggestive. This play on words continues subversively in the sculptures themselves, with their bone(r)-like form a colloquial pun on erection.
In the materials and the sense of authenticity of production in Lucas�s work is the heritage of Arte Povera � these works are roughly cast by the artist in plaster, presented on found timber blocks with wire supports - and Lucas has repeatedly used all these materials in her work to date, along with concrete, collage, cardboard, domestic furniture, fruit and vegetables, sanitary ware, cigarettes and underwear. It is often mistakenly stated that her work is coarse and casual assemblage, but there is a precision in her nonchalant and particular touch - how Lucas articulates her work defies reproduction. In the case of the Penetralia sculptures, their physical improbability is part of their totem-like magic and there is a pointed contrast between the transitoriness of catching the erection and of museological attempts to hang on to and preserve impossible things. In turn, the evidence of the piece being made (in some of the sculptures bits have snapped off and been stuck back on) is evocative of a strange and shamanistic ritual, a performance by artist and model.
A special artists� book by Sarah Lucas and Julian Simmons, made as a companion to the exhibition, will be available in a small signed edition. Sarah Lucas was born in Islington, London in 1962 and studied at Goldsmiths College. This exhibition of new sculptures follows her survey exhibition at Kunsthalle Zurich, Kunstverein en Hamburg and Tate Liverpool in 2005-2006 on which occasion a complete catalogue raisonne was published. She lives and works in Suffolk.
GABRIEL KURI
14 October � 22 November 2008 private view 18 October 2008
9 Balfour Mews London W1
For his first solo show in London and with Sadie Coles HQ, Mexican artist Gabriel Kuri presents Model for a Victory Parade. The title piece for the show comprises a simple conveyor belt with a squashed energy drink can stuck at one end, perpetually tumbling like an accidental metronome. This debris of an imagined ceremony, while holding multiple connotations, offers a material emphasis on the politics of energy consumption - a theme that runs current throughout the show. Whatever the impetus for the parade, whatever the regime or prevailing power for which it stands, Kuri presents a vision of what will inevitably be left behind. If history tells us the way things were supposed to have been, then as Stephen Dubner�s and Steven Levitt�s Freakonomics proposed, �morality� represents the way people would like the world to work, whereas economics represents how it actually does work�. Drawing on this ambiguity within historical narratives, Kuri emphasises how hollow the pomp and circumstance of ceremony are when compared to its discarded remains: �believe not in the monument, believe in the drink cans littering them�.
In A Commemorative Bonfire - a bilateral work of contrasting structures in which ideas of form come to the fore - a diamond appears crumpled, its sharp geometric edges softened and collapsed. Yet the piece takes its title from the small protrusion at the front, reminiscent of a bonfire�s cone-like, wooden structure. The cut diamond is not only an emblem of consumption but also of consummation and coded experience. Assignations of value are upset and transformed as Kuri defies the impossible, manipulating the mineral�s unalterable shape, extracting another form and associative symbolism. In another piece found objects nestle on and in jagged slabs of marble. At once heavy and light, soft and hard, full and empty, this piece epitomises Kuri�s gravitation towards polarities. Meanwhile, in a typically capricious gesture, Kuri creates a towering mass of receipts - one of his signature readymades. Anchored in concrete and running floor-to-ceiling, this piece is bound by what Mercedes Vicente has described as Kuri�s �irrefutable and inexorable logic�.
In his sculptures, collages, installations, and photographs, Kuri distils his observations of the everyday into the realm of formal aesthetics with powerful results. His recurrent choice of objects (receipts, plastic bags, stones) and themes (consumerism, economics, temporality)have, over time, built into a strong visual vocabulary, which while instantly identifiable, is carefully reworded in accordance with each context. Absorbed by questions of production, Kuri confidently navigates the areas between the found object, process and the built or manufactured. Often playful, he uncovers and shares surprises he finds, as in Untitled Fridge Trinity (2004) in which plastic bags hover ghost-like in fridges mid-air. He is a unique ountant, as witnessed in his wall-hung tapestries of receipts that he has produced since 2001, which arguably veer towards Minimialism in their concern for seriality and repetition. And he quickly invokes the unwitting passerby to collaborate, notably as part of Items in Care of Items in the Berlin Biennial comprising of huge yellow-painted, steel constructions that constituted the Neue ationalgalerie�s cloakroom, in and on which people left coats, bags and even babies.
Gabriel Kuri, born in 1970, lives and works in Brussels and Mexico City. He studied at the Escuela National de Artes Plasticas, Mexico (1988-92) and Goldsmiths� College, London (1993-95). Solo exhibitions include: and thanks in advance, Govett-Brewster, New Plymouth, New Zealand, 2006; Start To Stop Stopping, MUHKA, Antwerp, Belgium, 2003; and Museo de las Artes de Guadalajara, 1999. Groups shows include: 5 Berlin Biennale, Berlin, Germany; Unmonumental: The Object In The 21st Century, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (NY), USA and 50th International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale / Biennale di Venezia, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy. He has been the subject of a number of publications including: SUGGESTED TAXATION SCHEME, Roma Publications, 2007; and thanks in advance, A & R Press/Turner, 2007; and Compost Index, Roma Publications, 2005.
FLORIAN HECKER 14 October � 22 November 2008 private view 14 October 2008
35 Heddon Street London W1
For Florian Hecker�s first show at Sadie Coles HQ he presents Pentaphonic Dark Energy. Superimposed onto the existing gallery structure, Pentaphonic Dark Energy creates an environment in which body and architecture intersect. Across five loudspeakers sonic sequences combine to create the impression that space is being sculpted. As the piece develops, it builds into a series of opposites and contradictions: stable and uneven, fast and slow, loud and quiet. The title of the piece comes from physical cosmology in which 'dark energy' is a hypothetical form of energy that is found in space and responsible for the expansion of the universe. Pentaphonic, directly references its form. Also in the show is another abstract sound piece made of short cycles interspersed with perceived silences, contrasting with Pentaphonic Dark Energy�s almost narrative flow. Using super directional speakers the sound is superlatively focused. Elsewhere on the floor, in stark contrast to the two other sound pieces, sits a monochromatic cube made out of a coarse, cyan foam that is more usually used as part of a microphone, a device for absorbing the sound of wind, but also suggestive of a minimalist sculpture and Hecker's rigorous engagement with Conceptual practices of the 1970s.
Hecker�s work is concerned with how to manipulate psychoacoustic effects in order to distort and shift spatial perception. Working in performance, studio and installation, collaboration is core to Hecker's practice. He works frequently with software engineers, scientists as well as other artists such as Russell Haswell, Yasunao Tone and Cerith Wyn Evans. Often spoken of in relation to the avant garde composer, Iannis Xenakis, Hecker tirelessly explores old and new systems of creating working with sound. Notably with Russell Haswell he has revisited and reworked Xenakis' UPIC (Unit Polyagogique Informatique de CEMAMu) sound system in which an electronic pen is used to draw lines onto a board which are then directly translated into sound. Hecker�s solo work continues to explore ways of sound invention and sonic imaging through complex organisation and development processes.
Hecker was born in 1975 in Kissing, Germany. He has presented his work internationally and extensively including as part of La Fundaci�n BIACS, Seville, Spain, 2008; Manifesta 7, South Tyrol, Italy, 2008; WDR, Cologne, Germany, 2007; Kunsthaus, Graz, Austria, 2007; Mus�e d�Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris, France, 2006; Casa Da Musica, Porto, Portugal, 2005; Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria, 2003; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2002; Royal Festival Hall, London, UK, 2002; and La Biennale di Venezia, 49th International Exhibition of Art, Venice, Italy, 2001. Publications include ars viva 07/08, Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft im BDI, Frankfurt, 2007, and he will soon feature as part of The Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary 21 Collection Catalogue as well as a Hans Ulrich Obrist�s new book Formulas For Now. In addition, he has an extensive discography including Haswell and Hecker, Blackest Ever Black, CD, Warner Classics, 2007.
