23 Mar 2012 to 28 Apr 2012
Wednesday � Saturday 12 noon � 5pm
Vane
First Floor, Commercial Union House
39 Pilgrim Street
Newcastle
NE1 6QE
United Kingdom
Europe
T: 44 0 191 261 8281
F: 44 0 191 261 8281
M:
W: www.vane.org.uk
Billy Childish, Walser looking up a snowy slope oil and charcoal on linen, 244x153cm Courtesy of L-13 Light Industrial Workshop
Holly Antrum, Becky Beasley, Billy Childish, Robert Ellis, Catrin Huber, Sophie Macpherson, Jeremy Millar, Arnaud Moinet, Francesco Pedraglio, Roman Signer, Sylvia Vögel
23 March – 28 April 2012 Preview: Thursday 22 March 5:30-7:30 Gallery hours: Wed – Sat 12-5pm
‘Apropos the Kissing of a Hand’ forefronts the Festival Robert Walser. The exhibition at Vane consists of the work of eleven national and international artists who share a fascination with one of the major figures of modernist literature. Organised and curated by artist and writer Paul Becker and painter Catrin Huber, the exhibition is part of a series of events across the city running 19-23 March.
The twentieth century Swiss writer Robert Walser (1878-1956) has had a huge influence on a long list of literary, artistic and philosophical figures, from Franz Kafka to Walter Benjamin, musicians such as Heinz Holliger, visual artists from Paul Klee to Mark Wallinger and Tacita Dean, and filmmakers including the Brothers Quay. Only translated into English comparatively recently, international interest in Walser’s work has generated a wealth of new art, writing and critical discussion, which continues to explore his unique legacy.
Walser worked as a bank clerk, a butler in a castle and an inventor’s assistant, at the same time producing several novels and more than a thousand stories and poems. In 1929 he checked himself into an asylum in Berne, Switzerland, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He remained in mental health institutions for nearly thirty years until his sudden death in 1956, whilst walking in a field of snow near the asylum.
‘Apropos the Kissing of a Hand’ attempts to highlight Walser’s impact on a wide range of contemporary artists and, more particularly, seeks to present artists who attempt the complexities of referencing the influence and/or language of literature within their works.
The exhibition includes work by Holly Antrum, Becky Beasley, Billy Childish, Robert Ellis, Catrin Huber, Sophie Macpherson, Jeremy Millar, Arnaud Moinet, Francesco Pedraglio, Roman Signer, Sylvia Vögel, and ‘Relay – Analogue to Digital’, a project involving Fine Art students from Newcastle University working with artist Holly Antrum. At the exhibition preview, Arnaud Moinet will present a performative reading, I was myself the one who spoke to me.
The gallery will be closed during the Easter weekend on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 April
Exhibition supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. Festival Robert Walser supported by Newcastle University, New York Review Books, Robert Walser-Zentrum, Culture Lab Newcastle
Continues until Saturday 31 March: AV Festival 12: As Slow As Possible
Also open on the evening of 22 March are our two current exhibitions presented as part of AV Festival 12: As Slow As Possible, International Festival of Art, Technology, Music and Film
Sneha Solanki: Super-natural integrates the practice of witchcraft with the emergent science of synthetic biology. Solanki highlights the rifts between science and folk culture. Working in residence in a synthetic biology wet-lab, she has constructed a synthetic life, viewed through a scrying device. Supported by the Synthetic Biology Research Group, Newcastle University
Marina Zurkow: Mesocosm (Northumberland UK) is a 146-hour animated portrait of the Northumberland moors over a year. The work continuously changes over time in response to a computer-simulated ecosystem. Also on view are ‘Heraldic Crests for Invasive Species’, designed for twelve of the most successful modern invaders of North East England. Developed during an ISIS Arts residency.
The gallery will additionally be open on Sunday 18 and 25 March, 12-5pm.
Part of AV Festival 12: As Slow As Possible, International Festival of Art, Technology, Music and Film 1-31 March 2012 Newcastle, Gateshead, Middlesbrough, Sunderland. www.avfestival.co.uk
