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Indepth Arts News:
"The Observatory Vol. II: Harrell Fletcher, Mischa Richter, Gen Sasaki, David Estes and Lenka Clayton"
2006-06-22 until 2006-07-29
Laura Bartlett Gallery
London, ,
UK United Kingdom
Laura Bartlett Gallery is pleased to announce its summer exhibition The Observatory Vol II, with contributions by artists Harrell Fletcher, Mischa Richter, Gen Sasaki, David Estes and Lenka Clayton. Working with a detached or systematic approach, these artists are concerned with the agency of both the spectator and the observed. Earlier this year, Lenka Clayton drove across Britain collecting video portraits of people that she met. One person of every age between 1 and 100; women from the first to the last stages of pregnancy; couples who had been together for up to 80 years; and portraits outside the homes arranged by levels of inco! me.
The four short films, People in Order, in collaboration with filmmaker James Price, is both an unusual insight into how people seek to present themselves and an artists' attempt to chart and make tangible human experience through the grouping of random individuals. Clayton's work is currently featured in the touring exhibition, Jagd Salon in Germany and Snafu at Hamburger Kunsthalle.
David Estes is interested in the disparity between who we want to be and who we actually are. His video work, such as 'The Male Lead' finds Estes acting as the leading man in daytime TV dramas. His drawings depict unknown people caught in the middle of something - the figures float on the white surface; part still life, part memory. Estes has an upcoming show of recent videos at Island 6 Art Center, Shanghai.
Harrell Fletcher's The Sound We Make Together is a film of various groups from Houston, Texas. Fletcher invited them to do what they normally do but in a gallery space, such as conduct a board meeting or a music lesson. Filmed with an unmoving video camera, The Sound We Make Together presents an eccentric display of activity that has been isolated and made singular. Fletcher has exhibited extensively in the US. The touring exhibition The American War is currently at White Columns, New York. He has a forthcoming retrospective exhibition at Domaine de Kerghuennec, France, this September.
Mischa Richter's photographs are portraits of people at the same location at different intervals. The effects of time represent themselves in the vulnerability or physical self-consciousness of the subject. Anthony Street, August, 2002, 2003, 2004 is a triptych presenting without sentiment a document of two lives spent together and the inevitability of loss. Richter's photographs have been published in 'Learn and Pass It On' by Taschen and 'Paradise' by Steidl. He contributes to magazines such as The New York Times and The Observer.
Gen Sasaki will create a site-specific project exploring the notion of surveillance. Sasaki is interested in the transformative impact of cues, devices or systems on human behaviour. Having shown in various venues in Asia, this is Sasaki's first exhibition in Europe.
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