Alexandre Singh
12 May - 14 Jun 2008
ALEXANDRE SINGH
"The Marque of the Third Stripe"
Opening May 12th, 2008 at 6:30 p.m.
Until June 14th, 2008
The gallery Monitor is pleased to present English artist Alexandre Singh (Bordeaux, 1980) in his first solo show in Italy, and the third appointment in the short-term residency programme for young international artists.
The exhibition's title elaborates on the complex project The Marque of the Third Stripe, presented by Singh for East International at the Norwich Gallery, UK (July 2007) and the Royal College of London (May 2008).
The Marque of the Third Stripe, devoted to the celebrated figure of Adi Dassler, founder of the well-known sports brand Adidas, is articulated by a body of work that ranges from collage to video, from writing tout court to site-specific installation.
In an atmosphere of light and shadow, in a "town nestled in a region where the alarming spectrum of the Alps asserts itself in the lowest valleys", one awaits the birth of a large factory in which shoes and souls are fashioned, while an obscure presence inhabits a castel around which a wall was erected overnight, and the entire population of Herzogenaurach assists in the eternal struggle between man and the divine.
The tale of Dassler's deeds, developed according to the highest tradition of literature of an exquisitely Gothic matrix, is narrated by the voices of six Portuguese women, enveloping the viewer in an hypnotic sequence of geometric symbols and patterns.
For the exhibition at Monitor, Singh develops a mese en scene through the deconstruction of the gallery's exhibition space, creating an environment that follows the guidelines of the pre-existing architecture to enable an interaction of new spaces and volumes, with an installation of modernist matrix (or perhaps, as Kate Stancliff states, of modernist abstraction).
Within the exhibition space, a site-specific, large-scale sculpture and a series of seventeen large prints that illustrate the pages of the tale function as counter pieces.
Alexandre Singh (Bordeaux 1980, lives in New York).
Solo Exhibitions:
2008, Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, California (forthcoming); Hello Meth Lab in the Sun, Ballroom, Marfa, Texas; UNCLEHEAD, Museu da Electricidade, Fundacao EDP, Lisbon;
2007, The Marque of The Third Stripe, White Columns, New York.
Group Exhibitions:
2008, Art Cannot Be Untaught, La Rada, Locarno; Of this Tale, I cannot guarantee a single word, Royal College of Art, London; A New High in Getting Low, Artnews Projects, Berlin and John Connelly Presents, New York;
2007, East International Norwich; 9 or 10 works I used to like, in no order, Monitor, Rome; The First Antechamber, Projects Arts Center, Dublin; Temporary Measures, Associates, London;
2004, Romantic Detachment, PS1, New York.
"The Marque of the Third Stripe"
Opening May 12th, 2008 at 6:30 p.m.
Until June 14th, 2008
The gallery Monitor is pleased to present English artist Alexandre Singh (Bordeaux, 1980) in his first solo show in Italy, and the third appointment in the short-term residency programme for young international artists.
The exhibition's title elaborates on the complex project The Marque of the Third Stripe, presented by Singh for East International at the Norwich Gallery, UK (July 2007) and the Royal College of London (May 2008).
The Marque of the Third Stripe, devoted to the celebrated figure of Adi Dassler, founder of the well-known sports brand Adidas, is articulated by a body of work that ranges from collage to video, from writing tout court to site-specific installation.
In an atmosphere of light and shadow, in a "town nestled in a region where the alarming spectrum of the Alps asserts itself in the lowest valleys", one awaits the birth of a large factory in which shoes and souls are fashioned, while an obscure presence inhabits a castel around which a wall was erected overnight, and the entire population of Herzogenaurach assists in the eternal struggle between man and the divine.
The tale of Dassler's deeds, developed according to the highest tradition of literature of an exquisitely Gothic matrix, is narrated by the voices of six Portuguese women, enveloping the viewer in an hypnotic sequence of geometric symbols and patterns.
For the exhibition at Monitor, Singh develops a mese en scene through the deconstruction of the gallery's exhibition space, creating an environment that follows the guidelines of the pre-existing architecture to enable an interaction of new spaces and volumes, with an installation of modernist matrix (or perhaps, as Kate Stancliff states, of modernist abstraction).
Within the exhibition space, a site-specific, large-scale sculpture and a series of seventeen large prints that illustrate the pages of the tale function as counter pieces.
Alexandre Singh (Bordeaux 1980, lives in New York).
Solo Exhibitions:
2008, Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, California (forthcoming); Hello Meth Lab in the Sun, Ballroom, Marfa, Texas; UNCLEHEAD, Museu da Electricidade, Fundacao EDP, Lisbon;
2007, The Marque of The Third Stripe, White Columns, New York.
Group Exhibitions:
2008, Art Cannot Be Untaught, La Rada, Locarno; Of this Tale, I cannot guarantee a single word, Royal College of Art, London; A New High in Getting Low, Artnews Projects, Berlin and John Connelly Presents, New York;
2007, East International Norwich; 9 or 10 works I used to like, in no order, Monitor, Rome; The First Antechamber, Projects Arts Center, Dublin; Temporary Measures, Associates, London;
2004, Romantic Detachment, PS1, New York.