Frances Stark
13 Feb - 03 Apr 2010
FRANCES STARK
But what of Frances Stark, standing by itself, a naked name, bare as a ghost to whom one would like to lend a sheet?
Saturday 13 February - Saturday 3 April 2010
11:00am - 6:00pm: FREE
Venue: CCA 1 / CCA 2 / CCA 3
Frances Stark (1967, Newport Beach, California) is one of the most intriguing artists to have emerged from Los Angeles’ vibrant art scene in the last decade or two. Following major exhibitions at museums on the European mainland in the last couple of years, this is her first exhibition in a public gallery in Scotland and only the second in the UK since its stint at Nottingham Contemporary late 2009.
Stark’s work mostly takes the form of collages. Visually, they are reduced to the minimum - large areas of white paper or white under-paint are left showing. Yet these seemingly modest works open onto rich areas of thought. Writing, used visually, has always been central to Stark’s art, and for a long time she was better known for her art criticism and creative writing than for her own work. The words are rarely her own. Instead she lifts them from a wide range of literary sources - Emily Dickinson, Witold Gombrowicz and Robert Musil are particular favourites, as are philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and The Fall’s front man Mark E Smith. Somehow, though, the words of others become her own, revealing her highly idiosyncratic thought processes.
This exhibition begins in 2001, when visual imagery first becomes a consistent aspect of the collages. Since then imagery has played an increasing role in her work, to the point where language drops away altogether. Certain images recur, which can be read like signs: women, who resemble Frances herself; peacocks, exhibiting their extravagant tail feathers; chorus girls taking the stage or waiting self-consciously in the wings. As this suggests, for Stark the act of making and exhibiting her art is a kind of performance, one that involves a journey from the private realm of her thoughts, her studio and domestic life to the public realm of audiences, of the responses of others. For Stark, putting oneself on display is a process wracked with anxiety and self-doubt, leavened by occasional moments of creative exhilaration and pride. Her work is cut through by her distinctive wit and self-deprecating irony. But what of Frances Stark...? ends on a particularly daring note: three operatic kimonos, which double-up as soft-sculpture of old-fashioned dial-up telephones.
Loose relationships can be found between this exhibition of Stark’s work and Hockney’s early work. Los Angeles, as a way of life and state of mind is apparent in the work of both artists, as is the expression of their respective identities (sexuality in Hockney’s case, and gender and motherhood in Stark’s). Both artists use literary quotations to stand for their own thoughts. Stark refers to this in a new work made for the exhibition which features an essay comparing the gay 19th century American poet Walt Whitman, whom Hockney often quoted in his first works, with his contemporary compatriot, Emily Dickinson. With Whitman standing for Hockney and Dickinson for Stark, it is a witty acknowledgement of Stark’s affection for the older artist’s work and an allusion to their brief relationship via the two exhibitions.
Nottingham Contemporary has published a fully illustrated catalogue to accompany the exhibition, with essays by Mia Jankowicz, Francis McKee (Director here at CCA) and Alex Farquharson, Director, Nottingham Contemporary.
But what of Frances Stark, standing by itself, a naked name, bare as a ghost to whom one would like to lend a sheet?
Saturday 13 February - Saturday 3 April 2010
11:00am - 6:00pm: FREE
Venue: CCA 1 / CCA 2 / CCA 3
Frances Stark (1967, Newport Beach, California) is one of the most intriguing artists to have emerged from Los Angeles’ vibrant art scene in the last decade or two. Following major exhibitions at museums on the European mainland in the last couple of years, this is her first exhibition in a public gallery in Scotland and only the second in the UK since its stint at Nottingham Contemporary late 2009.
Stark’s work mostly takes the form of collages. Visually, they are reduced to the minimum - large areas of white paper or white under-paint are left showing. Yet these seemingly modest works open onto rich areas of thought. Writing, used visually, has always been central to Stark’s art, and for a long time she was better known for her art criticism and creative writing than for her own work. The words are rarely her own. Instead she lifts them from a wide range of literary sources - Emily Dickinson, Witold Gombrowicz and Robert Musil are particular favourites, as are philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and The Fall’s front man Mark E Smith. Somehow, though, the words of others become her own, revealing her highly idiosyncratic thought processes.
This exhibition begins in 2001, when visual imagery first becomes a consistent aspect of the collages. Since then imagery has played an increasing role in her work, to the point where language drops away altogether. Certain images recur, which can be read like signs: women, who resemble Frances herself; peacocks, exhibiting their extravagant tail feathers; chorus girls taking the stage or waiting self-consciously in the wings. As this suggests, for Stark the act of making and exhibiting her art is a kind of performance, one that involves a journey from the private realm of her thoughts, her studio and domestic life to the public realm of audiences, of the responses of others. For Stark, putting oneself on display is a process wracked with anxiety and self-doubt, leavened by occasional moments of creative exhilaration and pride. Her work is cut through by her distinctive wit and self-deprecating irony. But what of Frances Stark...? ends on a particularly daring note: three operatic kimonos, which double-up as soft-sculpture of old-fashioned dial-up telephones.
Loose relationships can be found between this exhibition of Stark’s work and Hockney’s early work. Los Angeles, as a way of life and state of mind is apparent in the work of both artists, as is the expression of their respective identities (sexuality in Hockney’s case, and gender and motherhood in Stark’s). Both artists use literary quotations to stand for their own thoughts. Stark refers to this in a new work made for the exhibition which features an essay comparing the gay 19th century American poet Walt Whitman, whom Hockney often quoted in his first works, with his contemporary compatriot, Emily Dickinson. With Whitman standing for Hockney and Dickinson for Stark, it is a witty acknowledgement of Stark’s affection for the older artist’s work and an allusion to their brief relationship via the two exhibitions.
Nottingham Contemporary has published a fully illustrated catalogue to accompany the exhibition, with essays by Mia Jankowicz, Francis McKee (Director here at CCA) and Alex Farquharson, Director, Nottingham Contemporary.