Between Sight and Sound
06 - 29 May 2010
BETWEEN SIGHT AND SOUND
Ronan McCrea, Aurelien Froment, Dot Dot Dot
06 May - 29 May 2010
Green On Red Gallery is delighted to exhibit in the gallery for the first time the work of 2 artists and a collaborative publication project. Aurélien Froment exhibits Pulmo Marina (2010) *, a video installation ( at times resembling a screen saver ) with voiceover and Who Here Listens to BBC News on Friday Night?, a memory game playable by small groups of viewers. Ronan McCrea exhibits Medium (Upsidedown) (2007), an eight minute slide projection with sound accompaniment. Dot Dot Dot, seen here for the first time in Ireland, is decade-old periodical produced by New York publishers Dexter Sinister. In recent years they have assembled a corollary collection of objects along with a palimpsest ‘ caption ‘ which together have come to explore the gap between text and image. The ways in which these elements are exhibited and mediated change according to the contingencies of each new location. Thanks for this manifestation mainly to Dot Dot Dot’s editor Stuart Bailey, Los Angeles. Their publication/collaboration works on the basis of several reversals, including the predomination of text over image.
The choice of Aurélien Froment (Fr.), Ronan McCrea (Irl.) and Dot Dot Dot (USA) is best understood by reference to the ways in which the visual in their work is often accessed through or inseparable from the verbal or aural. Much contemporary and conceptual art is linked intrinsically to questions of how we construct meaning at a fundamental level and how we try to define it through language, just as our experience of visual art is caught up in written explanation, exegesis and art historical/critical analysis. What is of interest in the work of the above three artists or art initiatives is the fresh approach to understanding such structures. There is a play with the relationships between the image and the text that generates a fertile ground somewhere between seeing and hearing/reading. Mental gymnastics is required in response to the visual and linguistic evidence – or, indeed, evident inconsistencies between the two "...like cracking a bridge in half so it wouldn’t function any more but people could still maybe leap from one side to the other."*
To illustrate the kind of play and intricate dialogue at work in Froment’s oeuvre it is worth referring to a recent review of his solo show, La Ligne Dure, in the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. The writer describes how “ The consequent layering of information, results in a complex process of deciphering and decoding, with the referents taking on a complexity that parallels Froment’s visual ingenuity “ and “ where visitors on either side [of a centrally placed wall] could be seen in mirror formation reading the list of works and then moving sideways to match the text with the related images... an unchoregraphed, crablike dance took place." (Artforum, October, 2008 ). While seemingly straightforward, the assured and well rehearsed language in Pulmo Marina is contradicted by the exotic and haunting image.
In McCrea’s projected Medium (Upsidedown) the separation of figure from background by means of dissolves, superimpositions and the orientation of the projections is set against the voice of a narrator/novelist. Because of the twist in the tale, the problematisation of the voice and visual representation of the female subject by both (male) authors is raised within the work and this in turn becomes the focus of Medium (Upsidedown). For this group exhibition the sound is presented on headphones. This provides further elaboration on the connections between sight and sound elements within the work and in relation to the other works in the group show.
For the opening of Between Sight and Sound the 10 page “ Caption “ for Dot Dot Dot’s wall display (DDDK ) will be performed live between 6 & 8pm. Thanks also to Marc Geffriaud, Christophe Lemaitre and Motive Gallery, Amsterdam.
Ronan McCrea, Aurelien Froment, Dot Dot Dot
06 May - 29 May 2010
Green On Red Gallery is delighted to exhibit in the gallery for the first time the work of 2 artists and a collaborative publication project. Aurélien Froment exhibits Pulmo Marina (2010) *, a video installation ( at times resembling a screen saver ) with voiceover and Who Here Listens to BBC News on Friday Night?, a memory game playable by small groups of viewers. Ronan McCrea exhibits Medium (Upsidedown) (2007), an eight minute slide projection with sound accompaniment. Dot Dot Dot, seen here for the first time in Ireland, is decade-old periodical produced by New York publishers Dexter Sinister. In recent years they have assembled a corollary collection of objects along with a palimpsest ‘ caption ‘ which together have come to explore the gap between text and image. The ways in which these elements are exhibited and mediated change according to the contingencies of each new location. Thanks for this manifestation mainly to Dot Dot Dot’s editor Stuart Bailey, Los Angeles. Their publication/collaboration works on the basis of several reversals, including the predomination of text over image.
The choice of Aurélien Froment (Fr.), Ronan McCrea (Irl.) and Dot Dot Dot (USA) is best understood by reference to the ways in which the visual in their work is often accessed through or inseparable from the verbal or aural. Much contemporary and conceptual art is linked intrinsically to questions of how we construct meaning at a fundamental level and how we try to define it through language, just as our experience of visual art is caught up in written explanation, exegesis and art historical/critical analysis. What is of interest in the work of the above three artists or art initiatives is the fresh approach to understanding such structures. There is a play with the relationships between the image and the text that generates a fertile ground somewhere between seeing and hearing/reading. Mental gymnastics is required in response to the visual and linguistic evidence – or, indeed, evident inconsistencies between the two "...like cracking a bridge in half so it wouldn’t function any more but people could still maybe leap from one side to the other."*
To illustrate the kind of play and intricate dialogue at work in Froment’s oeuvre it is worth referring to a recent review of his solo show, La Ligne Dure, in the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. The writer describes how “ The consequent layering of information, results in a complex process of deciphering and decoding, with the referents taking on a complexity that parallels Froment’s visual ingenuity “ and “ where visitors on either side [of a centrally placed wall] could be seen in mirror formation reading the list of works and then moving sideways to match the text with the related images... an unchoregraphed, crablike dance took place." (Artforum, October, 2008 ). While seemingly straightforward, the assured and well rehearsed language in Pulmo Marina is contradicted by the exotic and haunting image.
In McCrea’s projected Medium (Upsidedown) the separation of figure from background by means of dissolves, superimpositions and the orientation of the projections is set against the voice of a narrator/novelist. Because of the twist in the tale, the problematisation of the voice and visual representation of the female subject by both (male) authors is raised within the work and this in turn becomes the focus of Medium (Upsidedown). For this group exhibition the sound is presented on headphones. This provides further elaboration on the connections between sight and sound elements within the work and in relation to the other works in the group show.
For the opening of Between Sight and Sound the 10 page “ Caption “ for Dot Dot Dot’s wall display (DDDK ) will be performed live between 6 & 8pm. Thanks also to Marc Geffriaud, Christophe Lemaitre and Motive Gallery, Amsterdam.