Manchester based artists Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson have gained national and international recognition for their work in recent years, both individually and collaboratively. Their first major exhibition of collaborative work focuses on the theme of duality and the ways in which the meanings of objects can change when they are duplicated.
The artists say, "We use the idea of things in twos as a kind of organising principle to frame a wide range of interests. So the work might be about human relationships, delinquency, faith or sex but the pieces all work through this method of presenting a thing... with another one. It's different from making pairs or sets or doubles - it's about how your understanding of an object changes when you force it to be seen in relation to itself. When you select the right things to be shown in twos, it can be both complex and enchanting."
The exhibition includes photographic, sculptural, sound and text works including a newly commissioned film, Two Burning Bushes, a film work made in collaboration with Film and Video Umbrella, London. The work is based on the biblical story of God appearing to Moses and on the passage in the Qur'an of Allah appearing to Musa. Other works represented include a photographic diptych Two Dutch Masters and a text piece Two False Dawns.
Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson have worked together since 1994, when they shared a studio-space in Manchester. This is the first time that these works, all created in the past four years, have been exhibited together.
They have previously shown work at SFMOMA, San Francisco; LMCC, New York; Celeste and Eliot, Zurich; Fabbricca Del Vapore, Milan; KIASMA, Helsinki; Museum of Contemporary Art, Istanbul and Chisenhale Gallery, London.
They are currently joint-curating the second Artranspennine show, Artranspennine03, which takes place May-August this year and includes 50 publicly sited projects between Liverpool and Hull. Forthcoming exhibitions of their solo work include Radio Radio, Anthony Wilson Gallery, London and The Nineties, Mobile Home Gallery, London.
IMAGE
Nick Crowe
and Ian Rawlinson
Two Burning Bushes, 2003
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