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Indepth Arts News:
"Trackers: 21 Artists Working in Video, Sculpture, Installation, Performance and pPainting"
2004-04-30 until 2004-07-04
PM Gallery and House
London, ,
UK United Kingdom
Pitzhanger Manor Gallery & House will play host to 21 artists working in video, sculpture, installation, performance and painting; all will be working together to forge an approach to curation. Expanding on work done with random systems of curation, in the exhibition Hang the Curator in 2002, Charles Danby and Alejandro Ospina are pushing the boundaries further with trackers. PM Gallery and House provides a unique context for this experiment within its two distinctly different spaces.
Artists in the Gallery rolled dice to direct their placement within a ‘Vector’ structure. Each artist rolled three times to arrive at their x,y,z co-ordinates determining their position in the Gallery. All nine must now work together to resolve issues around closeness of work, placement in mid-air and governable space. Artists involved, (Batty, McLean, Danby, Graham, Ives, von Köhler Ospina, Rackowe and Smith,) work with an arbitrary act of chance that highlights the fragile nature of the system chosen, as a snap-shot outcome, at a moment in time. All have been selected for their ability to work spatially and find visually exciting answers to the challenge posed.
In-keeping with the intentions of Sir John Soane, (the House’s most illustrious owner), to use Pitzhanger as a space to explore new ideas in art and architecture, the work in the House looks towards new technology. Again the randomness of placement within the rooms, necessarily dictated by the Georgian architecture and restrictions of working within a Grade 1 listed building, reflects the imposed rigidity of the system within the Gallery, though arguably lends the artists a freer hand.
Work in the House includes that of film and video artists Neil Hamon and Ben Judd and a sound installation by Errol & Lyle Perkins and Alex Hutchins. Stuart Brisley and Ade Ward’s ‘Museum of Ordure’ is placed within the ‘Eating Room’ – offering an ironic take on Museums and collections. Amy Cunningham explores performance through the creation of an elaborate phantom piano. All the works here harbour a psychological edge of unease, that taps into notions of Soane’s compulsive nature and fascination with the unexpected.
The exhibition draws together established artists like Stuart Brisley and Bruce McLean, together with a group of significant younger artists, including Goshka Macuga, Nathaniel Rackowe and Georgina Batty. Six artists are working on collaborative projects, making 17 new works to be presented in total.
The show operates on multiple levels, allowing the public to unravel the layers as they travel around the spaces between the Gallery and the House. The exhibition exists between the two and is designed to bring the divergent aspects of the building together to propose a new potential for both the building and for the work, extending Sir John Soane’s own ideas of radical and complex exhibition spaces, using an array of cross-disciplinary work.
A 104 page full colour catalogue will accompany the exhibition, with essays by Helen Dorey, Deputy Director of Sir John Soane’s Museum and Chris Horrocks, History of Art lecturer at Kingston University.
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