Shannon Bool
18 Mar - 05 May 2012
SHANNON BOOL
18 March - 5 May, 2012
The king looks out of the barred window and sees a singing bird outdoor. "From a Kingis Quair" is the title of a poem dedicated to James I. of Scotland, who in the 15th century was locked up for 18 years starting at the age of ten by three successive queens. The limited view of the world "outside", the reversal of this limitation to a freedom "inside", in the realm of psychology, which in turn shapes the perception of external reality, "occurs" in Shannon Bool ́s exhibition as a choreography of opposites. Such contextual shifts and transfers of meaning are characteristic of Shannon Bool ́s working method. She conceptually falls back on existing paradigms of cultural and social history and recontextualises their visual codes in her sculptures, photograms and paintings on silk.
The process-related alterations in the perception of things, transformations and shifts of form and value, permeate the new work complex on view in the current show, the centre of which is formed by a four-part group of bar sculptures.
The freestanding bar group is based on a one-and-ahalf year project initiated by Shannon Bool at the women ́s prison in Berlin-Pankow, the building of which was erected at the end of the 19th century. Inspired by the contrast between the building ́s Jugendstil grating that is rich in detail and the both architecturally and socially de-individualised interior of the prison, the four bar sculptures are made of filigree steel. The minimalist
stringency is offset by polished bronze miniatures of the strictly regulated personal items of the inmates, for example, make-up utensils, cigarette boxes, pens, envelopes, or lucky charms. Comparable to pretentious jewellery by Cartier as far as their visual quality is concerned, the value of the objects is newly defined. The merging of alleged opposites is continued in the photograms "Gaza Zebra" and "The Allegory of Sleep". The
photograms are created by means of a collage of positive and negative transparent foils that are placed directly on the photographic paper to produce the actual picture through the direct exposure of the collage on the photographic paper. This drawing or painting with light is
embodied in a special way by the diptych "Gaza Zebra". The negative foils of a white and black donkey were overlapped to create the illusion of a zebra. At the same time, the fine contours of the tape used for the collage cover the entire picture like a pattern, traces of the chemical developer can be discerned and visualise the construction of the image space. The motif is based on the true event of the killing of the only zebra in a zoo located in the Gaza Strip and the resulting alternative
of painting black stripes on a white donkey. Like a window, the photogram "The Allegory of Sleep" opens the view to spaces that seem to lie behind the picture surface. Guarded by St Michael, one sees bedrooms from various contexts, from sparsely furnished ones to classics from the history of design. The new paintings on silk create "collages" of motifs drawn from different ages and combine fragments of black-and-white screen prints with painting. Found patterns of 1980s fashion design encounter avant-garde elements of Art Déco and modernism. Through several superimposed layers, the viewer takes an image-archaeological journey to values of high culture and everyday banalities. The silk works are mounted on special frames stabilised by a Perspex panes.
The silk ́s transparency turns the paintings into windows, appearing plane at first, but then including the surroundings and thus becoming intersections between inside and outside.
18 March - 5 May, 2012
The king looks out of the barred window and sees a singing bird outdoor. "From a Kingis Quair" is the title of a poem dedicated to James I. of Scotland, who in the 15th century was locked up for 18 years starting at the age of ten by three successive queens. The limited view of the world "outside", the reversal of this limitation to a freedom "inside", in the realm of psychology, which in turn shapes the perception of external reality, "occurs" in Shannon Bool ́s exhibition as a choreography of opposites. Such contextual shifts and transfers of meaning are characteristic of Shannon Bool ́s working method. She conceptually falls back on existing paradigms of cultural and social history and recontextualises their visual codes in her sculptures, photograms and paintings on silk.
The process-related alterations in the perception of things, transformations and shifts of form and value, permeate the new work complex on view in the current show, the centre of which is formed by a four-part group of bar sculptures.
The freestanding bar group is based on a one-and-ahalf year project initiated by Shannon Bool at the women ́s prison in Berlin-Pankow, the building of which was erected at the end of the 19th century. Inspired by the contrast between the building ́s Jugendstil grating that is rich in detail and the both architecturally and socially de-individualised interior of the prison, the four bar sculptures are made of filigree steel. The minimalist
stringency is offset by polished bronze miniatures of the strictly regulated personal items of the inmates, for example, make-up utensils, cigarette boxes, pens, envelopes, or lucky charms. Comparable to pretentious jewellery by Cartier as far as their visual quality is concerned, the value of the objects is newly defined. The merging of alleged opposites is continued in the photograms "Gaza Zebra" and "The Allegory of Sleep". The
photograms are created by means of a collage of positive and negative transparent foils that are placed directly on the photographic paper to produce the actual picture through the direct exposure of the collage on the photographic paper. This drawing or painting with light is
embodied in a special way by the diptych "Gaza Zebra". The negative foils of a white and black donkey were overlapped to create the illusion of a zebra. At the same time, the fine contours of the tape used for the collage cover the entire picture like a pattern, traces of the chemical developer can be discerned and visualise the construction of the image space. The motif is based on the true event of the killing of the only zebra in a zoo located in the Gaza Strip and the resulting alternative
of painting black stripes on a white donkey. Like a window, the photogram "The Allegory of Sleep" opens the view to spaces that seem to lie behind the picture surface. Guarded by St Michael, one sees bedrooms from various contexts, from sparsely furnished ones to classics from the history of design. The new paintings on silk create "collages" of motifs drawn from different ages and combine fragments of black-and-white screen prints with painting. Found patterns of 1980s fashion design encounter avant-garde elements of Art Déco and modernism. Through several superimposed layers, the viewer takes an image-archaeological journey to values of high culture and everyday banalities. The silk works are mounted on special frames stabilised by a Perspex panes.
The silk ́s transparency turns the paintings into windows, appearing plane at first, but then including the surroundings and thus becoming intersections between inside and outside.