En présence
27 Feb - 16 May 2010
EN PRÉSENCE
Becky Beasley, Tacita Dean , Wolf von Kries ...
27 February - 16 May 2010
Presenting natural and man-made objects, fragments and recipients as artefacts of a collective cultural memory, it confronts viewers with succinct narratives, encouraging them to focus on the physical or even metaphysical proprieties of the works on display which, similar to the objects in a still life painting, can be likened to excerpts from the world that surrounds us.
Gloss I is the title of the large-format photograph by Becky Beasley that introduces the exhibition. The black-and-white print shows a shelf-like construction – an object normally used as a presentation device for other items. In this photograph, however, the structure resembles a prototype design whose basic shape has been sketched but left incomplete. In actual fact, the artist built an unfinished 2/3 scale model of a standard piano. The dark surfaces of the wooden beams are painted in part glossy, part matte lacquer. Similar to 19th-century photographs, in which neutral backgrounds were used to compensate for lacking depth of field, the object in this picture is shown standing in front of light-coloured paper rolls, which has allowed the artist to isolate it from its surroundings.
In its current version, Wolf von Kries‘s ongoing video project Jars consists of a series of fifteen sequences filmed in different venues. The chain-like structure of the film links such disparate objects as the slowly opening door of a cupboard in a bourgeois interior setting, a stingray being slaughtered, two construction cranes moving towards each other under a pale half-moon, or a snow flurry at night. The film is subdivided into chapters, each comprising three sequences and separated by a black frame. The hand-held camera movements and the ambient noise lend the film a documentary-like character, but the minute actions it depicts have been removed from their original context, leaving viewers unsure as to their location in time or space. Von Kries’s images are contemplative observations – a personal archive of “jars” filled with images.
Becky Beasley’s Five Revolutions show a flowerless orchid that was photographed from three different angles. On two of the five black-and-white photographs the motif has been inverted, on another it was printed upside down. On the one hand the sequence of points of view suggests movement, as though the gaze were circling a sculpture, while on the other hand the work addresses the photographic process as such (recording, developing, printing). In this modern-day vanity, time and transience are present on several levels, as witness for instance the plainly visible signs of wear on the cardboard-mounted photographs.
Oak rumble is the title of Leon Vranken‘s reconstruction of an antique museum display case. Similar to Becky Beasley’s Gloss I, Vranken’s work shows an empty “recipient” – an object originally designed to store precious exhibits. By indenting parts of the furniture, Vranken created a seemingly unstable structure, thus undermining the showcase’s protecting function. This allows the object’s sculptural characteristics to come to the fore, while its make and materiality become merely self-referential.
“Poire Prisonnière” (Prisoner Pear) is the colloquial name of a traditional strong liquor that is still being produced in a few distilleries in Switzerland, Alsace and the Black Forest region. The pears used in this alcoholic beverage are allowed to mature inside the bottle before they are immersed in schnapps made from Williams pears. For her project, the English artist Tacita Dean initially intended to document the harvesting of these “bottle pears”. As the picking season was over, she decided instead to buy two regular bottles of this schnapps, from Alsace and another French region respectively. She then proceeded to film the bottles to create an animated still life, a contemplative observation of the two pieces of fruit in their glass recipients, with the slowly changing light the only noticeable action. The “Prisoner Pears” thus turn into a Prisoner Pair (2008) whose “inner life, a landscape of microscopic details and activity” (T. D.) we observe.
Seen from afar, Katinka Bock‘s Partition en automne (2009) resembles the horizon line of a hilly landscape. This installation consists of small branches that the artist collected after a storm and reassembled into a new entity. Despite the variations in colour and texture of the branches, which stem from different types of trees, they form a harmonious unity that belies the delicacy and sketchiness of the line. Bock develops her works according to the inner logic of the materials she uses, whose intrinsic characteristics she highlights by means of minimal interventions.
...
Throughout the exhibition, Dan Peterman‘s installation Archive (for 57 people) will be displayed in the lobby of the CEAAC. The Chicago-based artist’s practice has been using recycled materials since the 1980s. The amount of plastic components used for the construction of the pieces of furniture shown here represents the average annual consumption of 57 US citizens. Peterman has devised a number of similar installations for art galleries and public spaces. While remindful of minimalist sculpture, his installations are functional objects in which ecological concerns are given a physical shape.
Becky Beasley, Tacita Dean , Wolf von Kries ...
27 February - 16 May 2010
Presenting natural and man-made objects, fragments and recipients as artefacts of a collective cultural memory, it confronts viewers with succinct narratives, encouraging them to focus on the physical or even metaphysical proprieties of the works on display which, similar to the objects in a still life painting, can be likened to excerpts from the world that surrounds us.
Gloss I is the title of the large-format photograph by Becky Beasley that introduces the exhibition. The black-and-white print shows a shelf-like construction – an object normally used as a presentation device for other items. In this photograph, however, the structure resembles a prototype design whose basic shape has been sketched but left incomplete. In actual fact, the artist built an unfinished 2/3 scale model of a standard piano. The dark surfaces of the wooden beams are painted in part glossy, part matte lacquer. Similar to 19th-century photographs, in which neutral backgrounds were used to compensate for lacking depth of field, the object in this picture is shown standing in front of light-coloured paper rolls, which has allowed the artist to isolate it from its surroundings.
In its current version, Wolf von Kries‘s ongoing video project Jars consists of a series of fifteen sequences filmed in different venues. The chain-like structure of the film links such disparate objects as the slowly opening door of a cupboard in a bourgeois interior setting, a stingray being slaughtered, two construction cranes moving towards each other under a pale half-moon, or a snow flurry at night. The film is subdivided into chapters, each comprising three sequences and separated by a black frame. The hand-held camera movements and the ambient noise lend the film a documentary-like character, but the minute actions it depicts have been removed from their original context, leaving viewers unsure as to their location in time or space. Von Kries’s images are contemplative observations – a personal archive of “jars” filled with images.
Becky Beasley’s Five Revolutions show a flowerless orchid that was photographed from three different angles. On two of the five black-and-white photographs the motif has been inverted, on another it was printed upside down. On the one hand the sequence of points of view suggests movement, as though the gaze were circling a sculpture, while on the other hand the work addresses the photographic process as such (recording, developing, printing). In this modern-day vanity, time and transience are present on several levels, as witness for instance the plainly visible signs of wear on the cardboard-mounted photographs.
Oak rumble is the title of Leon Vranken‘s reconstruction of an antique museum display case. Similar to Becky Beasley’s Gloss I, Vranken’s work shows an empty “recipient” – an object originally designed to store precious exhibits. By indenting parts of the furniture, Vranken created a seemingly unstable structure, thus undermining the showcase’s protecting function. This allows the object’s sculptural characteristics to come to the fore, while its make and materiality become merely self-referential.
“Poire Prisonnière” (Prisoner Pear) is the colloquial name of a traditional strong liquor that is still being produced in a few distilleries in Switzerland, Alsace and the Black Forest region. The pears used in this alcoholic beverage are allowed to mature inside the bottle before they are immersed in schnapps made from Williams pears. For her project, the English artist Tacita Dean initially intended to document the harvesting of these “bottle pears”. As the picking season was over, she decided instead to buy two regular bottles of this schnapps, from Alsace and another French region respectively. She then proceeded to film the bottles to create an animated still life, a contemplative observation of the two pieces of fruit in their glass recipients, with the slowly changing light the only noticeable action. The “Prisoner Pears” thus turn into a Prisoner Pair (2008) whose “inner life, a landscape of microscopic details and activity” (T. D.) we observe.
Seen from afar, Katinka Bock‘s Partition en automne (2009) resembles the horizon line of a hilly landscape. This installation consists of small branches that the artist collected after a storm and reassembled into a new entity. Despite the variations in colour and texture of the branches, which stem from different types of trees, they form a harmonious unity that belies the delicacy and sketchiness of the line. Bock develops her works according to the inner logic of the materials she uses, whose intrinsic characteristics she highlights by means of minimal interventions.
...
Throughout the exhibition, Dan Peterman‘s installation Archive (for 57 people) will be displayed in the lobby of the CEAAC. The Chicago-based artist’s practice has been using recycled materials since the 1980s. The amount of plastic components used for the construction of the pieces of furniture shown here represents the average annual consumption of 57 US citizens. Peterman has devised a number of similar installations for art galleries and public spaces. While remindful of minimalist sculpture, his installations are functional objects in which ecological concerns are given a physical shape.