Matthew Ritchie
01 May - 01 Jul 2009
MATTHEW RITCHIE
The Need-fire
Opening reception: May 1, 2009, 7–9 pm
Exhibition duration: May 1–July, 2009
It is a great pleasure to announce a new exhibition with Matthew Ritchie on the occasion of the fourth Berlin Gallery Weekend at c/o – Gerhardsen Gerner (formerly known as
c/o – Atle Gerhardsen).
The tradition of the Need-Fire (or Wild-Fire, such as the Midsummer’s Eve bonfire) dates back to the 8th century. In this custom the beginning of spring or summer is marked by building a great bonfire to clear the air of contaminating spirits.
With “The Need-fire” Matthew Ritchie will be presenting four large paintings, a collection of drawings as well as a multimedia installation and sculpture.
The four paintings in the series “The Four Forces” not only form a unity through the mythical tradition of numerology ; they are also thematically linked. They embody the four fundamental energies of the universe: “the light force, the heavy force (gravity), the strong force & the weak force”.
The four energies reveal a parallel to the various states in the antique theory of four humors, in which the health of the human relies on the four bodily fluids being in harmonic balance. If one of the substances is unbalanced, it results in a shift of humor, which in turn also influences the state of mind. However there remains the possibility to restore the ideal balance of humors in the body – in theory at least – by, for example, building a cleansing spring fire.
The theme of cleansing and rediscovery is also taken up in the multimedia installation in the small gallery space, which alters the architecture of the place. A sculptural screen creates the opening towards the front, on which and through which a video work is projected showing the cyclical birth, construction and collapse of a civilization, accompanied by spoken narrative and music composed by Bryce Dessner and Evan Ziporyn.
Matthew Ritchie says about his work: "In other words, for me, the original idea that any sufficiently complex system would acquire its own internal meaning [...] has mutated into an omnivorous visualization system constantly generating multiple meanings. This system is not really being generated by me; it is a story by, for, and about everyone and everything. And so [...] my project has taken on an internal life. It has escaped." (The artist in an interview with Thyrza Nichols Goodeve).
Since the 1990s Matthew Ritchie has been creating his own fictitious world order in both his artistic and literary work. The artist's work is concerned with the unfathomable breadth of the universe and our various attempts to understand the things that are beyond our grasp. At the core of his work is "information" as a kind of raw data, from which the works develop, and are later charted and measured in diagrams according to their own systems of colour, lines, material and light.
Ritchie takes recourse to science, history, philosophy, economy, the great mythologies from across the globe, religious traditions as well as gleaning from popular culture. His works and installations can be seen as part of his cosmology, as part of a Gesamtkunstwerk, spanning the limits of any particular medium, becoming trans-medial due to its sheer complexity.
Matthew Ritchie was born in 1964 in England and currently lives and works in New York City. This is his fourth solo exhibition with Atle Gerhardsen and Nicolai Gerner-Mathisen.
Further exhibitions and projects in 2009:
The Morning Line, CAAC, Sevilla (solo)
International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Seville, Sevilla (October 2–January 11, 2009; group)
The Kaleidoscopic Eye, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (April 5–June 26, 2009; group)
Compass in Hand: Selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection, MoMA, New York (April 22, 2009–July 27, 2009; group)
Between Art and Life, SFMoMA, San Francisco (May 10, 2009–January 3, 2010; group)
Hypermusic Prologue; Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with Harvard physicist Lisa Randall and composer Hector Parra (opening June 14, 2009; performance)
The Last Scattering, Arup AGU, London (June 2009; solo)
Automatic Cities: The Architectural Imaginary in Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego (October 10, 2009–January 31, 2010; group)
The Long Count, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn (October 28–31, 2009; performance)
Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York (forthcoming; solo)
Confines, IVAM, Valencia (forthcoming 2009)
For further information or visuals please contact Maike Fries,
c/o – Gerhardsen Gerner: T: +49-30-69 51 83 41, F: +49-30-69 51 83 42,
E: office@gerhardsengerner.com or visit our website at http://www.gerhardsengerner.com.
The Need-fire
Opening reception: May 1, 2009, 7–9 pm
Exhibition duration: May 1–July, 2009
It is a great pleasure to announce a new exhibition with Matthew Ritchie on the occasion of the fourth Berlin Gallery Weekend at c/o – Gerhardsen Gerner (formerly known as
c/o – Atle Gerhardsen).
The tradition of the Need-Fire (or Wild-Fire, such as the Midsummer’s Eve bonfire) dates back to the 8th century. In this custom the beginning of spring or summer is marked by building a great bonfire to clear the air of contaminating spirits.
With “The Need-fire” Matthew Ritchie will be presenting four large paintings, a collection of drawings as well as a multimedia installation and sculpture.
The four paintings in the series “The Four Forces” not only form a unity through the mythical tradition of numerology ; they are also thematically linked. They embody the four fundamental energies of the universe: “the light force, the heavy force (gravity), the strong force & the weak force”.
The four energies reveal a parallel to the various states in the antique theory of four humors, in which the health of the human relies on the four bodily fluids being in harmonic balance. If one of the substances is unbalanced, it results in a shift of humor, which in turn also influences the state of mind. However there remains the possibility to restore the ideal balance of humors in the body – in theory at least – by, for example, building a cleansing spring fire.
The theme of cleansing and rediscovery is also taken up in the multimedia installation in the small gallery space, which alters the architecture of the place. A sculptural screen creates the opening towards the front, on which and through which a video work is projected showing the cyclical birth, construction and collapse of a civilization, accompanied by spoken narrative and music composed by Bryce Dessner and Evan Ziporyn.
Matthew Ritchie says about his work: "In other words, for me, the original idea that any sufficiently complex system would acquire its own internal meaning [...] has mutated into an omnivorous visualization system constantly generating multiple meanings. This system is not really being generated by me; it is a story by, for, and about everyone and everything. And so [...] my project has taken on an internal life. It has escaped." (The artist in an interview with Thyrza Nichols Goodeve).
Since the 1990s Matthew Ritchie has been creating his own fictitious world order in both his artistic and literary work. The artist's work is concerned with the unfathomable breadth of the universe and our various attempts to understand the things that are beyond our grasp. At the core of his work is "information" as a kind of raw data, from which the works develop, and are later charted and measured in diagrams according to their own systems of colour, lines, material and light.
Ritchie takes recourse to science, history, philosophy, economy, the great mythologies from across the globe, religious traditions as well as gleaning from popular culture. His works and installations can be seen as part of his cosmology, as part of a Gesamtkunstwerk, spanning the limits of any particular medium, becoming trans-medial due to its sheer complexity.
Matthew Ritchie was born in 1964 in England and currently lives and works in New York City. This is his fourth solo exhibition with Atle Gerhardsen and Nicolai Gerner-Mathisen.
Further exhibitions and projects in 2009:
The Morning Line, CAAC, Sevilla (solo)
International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Seville, Sevilla (October 2–January 11, 2009; group)
The Kaleidoscopic Eye, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (April 5–June 26, 2009; group)
Compass in Hand: Selections from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection, MoMA, New York (April 22, 2009–July 27, 2009; group)
Between Art and Life, SFMoMA, San Francisco (May 10, 2009–January 3, 2010; group)
Hypermusic Prologue; Centre Pompidou, Paris, in collaboration with Harvard physicist Lisa Randall and composer Hector Parra (opening June 14, 2009; performance)
The Last Scattering, Arup AGU, London (June 2009; solo)
Automatic Cities: The Architectural Imaginary in Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego (October 10, 2009–January 31, 2010; group)
The Long Count, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn (October 28–31, 2009; performance)
Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York (forthcoming; solo)
Confines, IVAM, Valencia (forthcoming 2009)
For further information or visuals please contact Maike Fries,
c/o – Gerhardsen Gerner: T: +49-30-69 51 83 41, F: +49-30-69 51 83 42,
E: office@gerhardsengerner.com or visit our website at http://www.gerhardsengerner.com.