Daragh Reeves
22 Oct - 27 Nov 2005
W139 presents:
The Fountains of New York
A solo exhibition by Daragh Reeves (UK)
22 October – 27 November 2005
‘ The way something looks is more truthful than what it means’
The gravitational force in the work of Daragh Reeves (1974, Leeds) seems to be his preoccupation with the ‘ambivalent/uncertain status of the image’. The images Reeves composes or creates – whether they are drawings, sketches, slides, films or video’s – do not reveal their ‘source’ nor their ‘destination’ and they remain unresolved. They seem to deliberately hesitate between being visual renderings of ideas, semi-functional entities, film quotations or representations of idiosyncratic thoughts. Reeves moreover has a predilection for neologisms and uses language as a flexible tool to conjure up a cast of fictional figures and fragmented stories, partly based on the existence and achievements of film directors, movie stars and friends.
In the spaces of W139 Reeves has created a sequence of rooms which confront the viewer with the different aspects of his multifarious practice. Reeves assembled a motley collection of drawings, posters, appropriated imagery and films which support the presumption that he has a particular interest in cinematic procedures of storytelling. Notions such as duration, lightness, disguise and seemingly banal elements such as hats, lamps and clocks play a primordial role in his work.
In one of the ‘cabinets’ Reeves reduces a feature film to its physical ‘essence’, a myriad of lightparticles that illuminate a set of his own drawings. The film in that sense dissolves and disappears in a similar way as the ‘paper sculptures’ in the video Falling drawings do. This registration shows a wallpiece slowly tumbling down and literally disintegrating over a period of time. The absence of real action is counterpoised in the nocturnal movie Night Club. In Night Club, which is based on a compilation of collected filmexcerpts, the viewer is confronted with frenetic movement and motion, a pervasive feeling of persecution. The threat of violence is everywhere but appears nowhere. The actual ‘plot’ seems to be continuously suspended, the climax or conclusion of the story is never reached.
The title piece, The Fountains of New York, is presented as an afterthought to the show and can be read as a 'time-based sketchbook’, an audio-visual collage which consists both of filmed still-lives, quasi absurd performances, impressionistic shots and ‘staged’ confessions. As a whole the film seems to function as a kind of ‘portrait of the artist as a young man’. It switches to and fro between different time periods in Reeves’ life as an nomadic art student and is similar to a fragmented filmversion of a ‘Bildungsroman’.
In addition to the show in the basement of Post CS Reeves presents Disguise for a light bulb, produced for 11_restaurant_bar_club (Post CS). An atmospheric video installation in which the filmed representation of a series of lamps become an actual light source for the top floor of the former post-office.
W139 is located in the cellars of the Post CS building, Oosterdokskade 5, 1011 AD Amsterdam. The show is open from Tuesday through Sunday, 1-6 p.m.. For more information or press images please contact pers@w139.nl or + 31 20 622 94 34.
The Fountains of New York
A solo exhibition by Daragh Reeves (UK)
22 October – 27 November 2005
‘ The way something looks is more truthful than what it means’
The gravitational force in the work of Daragh Reeves (1974, Leeds) seems to be his preoccupation with the ‘ambivalent/uncertain status of the image’. The images Reeves composes or creates – whether they are drawings, sketches, slides, films or video’s – do not reveal their ‘source’ nor their ‘destination’ and they remain unresolved. They seem to deliberately hesitate between being visual renderings of ideas, semi-functional entities, film quotations or representations of idiosyncratic thoughts. Reeves moreover has a predilection for neologisms and uses language as a flexible tool to conjure up a cast of fictional figures and fragmented stories, partly based on the existence and achievements of film directors, movie stars and friends.
In the spaces of W139 Reeves has created a sequence of rooms which confront the viewer with the different aspects of his multifarious practice. Reeves assembled a motley collection of drawings, posters, appropriated imagery and films which support the presumption that he has a particular interest in cinematic procedures of storytelling. Notions such as duration, lightness, disguise and seemingly banal elements such as hats, lamps and clocks play a primordial role in his work.
In one of the ‘cabinets’ Reeves reduces a feature film to its physical ‘essence’, a myriad of lightparticles that illuminate a set of his own drawings. The film in that sense dissolves and disappears in a similar way as the ‘paper sculptures’ in the video Falling drawings do. This registration shows a wallpiece slowly tumbling down and literally disintegrating over a period of time. The absence of real action is counterpoised in the nocturnal movie Night Club. In Night Club, which is based on a compilation of collected filmexcerpts, the viewer is confronted with frenetic movement and motion, a pervasive feeling of persecution. The threat of violence is everywhere but appears nowhere. The actual ‘plot’ seems to be continuously suspended, the climax or conclusion of the story is never reached.
The title piece, The Fountains of New York, is presented as an afterthought to the show and can be read as a 'time-based sketchbook’, an audio-visual collage which consists both of filmed still-lives, quasi absurd performances, impressionistic shots and ‘staged’ confessions. As a whole the film seems to function as a kind of ‘portrait of the artist as a young man’. It switches to and fro between different time periods in Reeves’ life as an nomadic art student and is similar to a fragmented filmversion of a ‘Bildungsroman’.
In addition to the show in the basement of Post CS Reeves presents Disguise for a light bulb, produced for 11_restaurant_bar_club (Post CS). An atmospheric video installation in which the filmed representation of a series of lamps become an actual light source for the top floor of the former post-office.
W139 is located in the cellars of the Post CS building, Oosterdokskade 5, 1011 AD Amsterdam. The show is open from Tuesday through Sunday, 1-6 p.m.. For more information or press images please contact pers@w139.nl or + 31 20 622 94 34.