re-title.com
03 November 2011
  Sculpture / Installation 
KROBATH, Berlin
STARKWHITE, Auckland
JERWOOD SPACE, London
CHERRY AND MARTIN, Los Angeles
 

 
KROBATH, Berlin
 
 
Dominik Lang 'Private collection', 2011
 
Dominik Lang
"Private collection", 2011
Courtesy: Dominik Lang and Krobath Wien | Berlin
 
 
DOMINIK LANG
Private Collection
 
29 October 2011 – 28 January 2012
Opening hours: Thu – Sat 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
 
When encountering the work of the young Czech artist Dominik Lang, it might well seem that its main goal is an intervention in the gallery space and, figuratively, into the temporality of the history of art. However, the real focus of Lang's attention is an inquiry of the distribution of visibility. His works either intervene in the architecture of the gallery, wherein he installs or construes new elements of structure, or else they present a strategic interpretation of the history of art. This is so, for instance, in the numerous cases when he as an artist includes in his exhibitions either a reconstruction or the originals of other artists' works. His purpose in doing so is not merely to reveal the hidden assumptions of the administration of exhibits (like the proponents of institutional critique do), or else to examine the possibility of bringing the unfinished past into the present (as attempted by the so-called archival turn). His primary intent is to create a certain context for the attention of the viewers, and to demonstrate to them the spatial, historical and institutional conditioning of all that they can actually see.
 
Lang's most explicit achievement in this direction is probably the installation “Sleeping City”, commissioned for the Pavilion of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic at the 54 th Venice Biennale (2011). Here, Lang offered a radical interpretation of the late modernist sculptures of his own father, Jiri Lang (1927–1996). The artist's primary goal was not a simple presentation of the figurative plastic works, tinged by abstraction, which Jiri Lang created in the Communist 1950s, nor did he intend a reconstruction of the museum architecture where the works could have been exhibited in their own day. Rather, this particular installation incited the viewers to ask themselves what conditions guarantee the visibility of art, which are the causes of its falling into oblivion, and by extension, what will happen with the highly, unavoidably visible art of today in fifty years' time.
 
If the afterlife of art was Lang's topic in the “Sleeping City” project, his focus in “Private Collection” – his first individual project for the Krobath Gallery – are the antecedents of a work of art. In a highly specific environment, Lang uncovers that which is always concealed in the resulting work as its tacit presupposition: the referential framework of both artistic and non-artistic influences, of empty gallery spaces and unrealized projects. On panels, in display cases and on shelves whose total surface precisely equals one of the gallery walls, Lang has assembled collages and facsimiles of works by authors such as Karel Teige, the important representative of the Czech avant-garde, or the American “anarchitect” Gordon-Matta Clark. All together this creates a kind of a blind spot which, unseen, allows us to see Dominik Lang's work.
 
- Text: Karel Cisar
 
Dominik Lang, born 1980 in Prague; lives and works in Prague. He studied in the Spatial Art studio of Jiri Prihoda at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and at Cooper Union in New York. He worked as an assistant of Ai Weiwei in Beijing and as an visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and also as a curator of the Centre of Contemporary Art in Prague. Exhibitions (Selection): 2011 Pavilion of Czech and Slovak Republic at the Venice Biennale, Krobath / Berlin; 2010 Young Art Biennal ZVON; 2009 Brno Art Open; 2007 Prague Biennale, Trafo Gallery Budapest.

 
KROBATH
Marienstraße 10
D-10117 Berlin
Germany
T: +49 30 280 426 70
 
 
 
 

 
STARKWHITE, Auckland
 
 
Dane Mitchell, The Dragon, The Purple Forbidden Enclosure
 
Dane Mitchell
The Dragon, The Purple Forbidden Enclosure
Courtesy of Starkwhite, Auckland, New Zealand
 
 
DANE MITCHELL
The Dragon, The Purple Forbidden Enclosure
 
27 October – 23 November 2011
 
Starkwhite is pleased to present The Dragon, The Purple Forbidden Enclosure by Dane Mitchell.
 
Commissioned for the 2011 Singapore Biennale Open House, the work will be restaged at Starkwhite.
The original installation, presented at Singapore's Old Kallang Airport, was made active through the production of a spell produced by a medium and feng shui geomancer, which channelled the energies of the room and imbued the space alongside selected objects and forms with 'Qi'. In its re-presentation, the unseen activity surrounding the various forms and objects radiate their mystery as 'charged' relics.
 
In his introduction to the work, Singapore Biennale co-curator Russell Storer wrote: "Intangible materials and forces are the stuff of Dane Mitchell's work. From dust, scent and light to the presence of spirits and the dynamics of human interaction, Mitchell attunes us to the life of spaces, in the here and now and in the past. His work always involves intensive research, and often collaborations with specialists, including French perfumiers, glass blowers, and spiritual mediums. For his work The Dragon, The Purple Forbidden Enclosure, the special energies of a room at the Old Kallang Airport have been identified and channelled with the help of a local medium, mapped by the artist's astrological sign, delineating a conversation between cul­tures and a threshold between worlds."
 
Dane Mitchell lives and works in Auckland and Berlin. Selected recent solo exhibitions include: Radiant Matter III, Artspace Auckland (2011); Radiant Matter II, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin (2011); Radiant Matter 1, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth (2011);); Minor Optics, daadgalerie, Berlin (2009); Bending Light, Starkwhite, Auckland (2009); Conjuring Form, Art Statements, Art39Basel, Basel (2008); A Guest, A Host, Galerie West, The Hague (2008); Invocations, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne (2008).
Recent group exhibitions include: Simultaneously Modern: Three Art Installations from the Contemporary New Zealand Art Collections, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland (2011); Singapore Biennale 2011 Open House, Singapore (2011); 29th Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana 2011, Ljubjana (2011); Afterlife, Tot Zover Museum, Amsterdam (2011); The Matter of Air, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne (2011); Busan Biennale, Korea (2010); Measuring Potential, Pots­dammer Strasse 88, Berlin (2010); For Keeps, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland (2009); Casa Sem Dono, Casa Triangulo, São Paulo (2008); Mystic Truths, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland, New Zealand (2007).
In 2011 he was artist in residence at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery; 2010 artist in residence at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery; 2010/2009 artist in residence on the Berliner Künstlerprogramm DAAD, Berlin; 2008 artist in residence at Gasworks, London.
 
Located in New Zealand on Auckland's Karangahape Road, Starkwhite presents a programme of artists' projects, solo shows, independently curated exhibitions and occasional forays into new music and other interdisciplinary practices. Starkwhite also represents artists from New Zealand, Asia and the Pacific-rim.

 
STARKWHITE
510 Karangahape Road
Auckland
New Zealand
Tel. +64 9 3070703
 
 
 
 

 
JVA at JERWOOD SPACE, London
 
 
Jonathan Anderson, Dark Star, 2010
 
Jonathan Anderson
Dark Star, 2010
Courtesy of the artist and Jerwood Visual Arts
 
 
TERRA
 
9 November – 11 December 2011
 
Private view: 8 November 2011, 6.30 – 8.30pm
Owl Project performance at 7.15pm
 
JONATHAN ANDERSON
EDWINA FITZPATRICK
LUKE JERRAM
ANNE-MIE MELIS
OWL PROJECT
 
A Jerwood Encounters exhibition that explores the relationship contemporary sculpture practice shares with the environment and landscape beyond the gallery. Curated by Hayley Skipper and Antony Mottershead, in partnership with Forestry Commission England, Grizedale Forest.
 
Jerwood Visual Arts presents TERRA, the forthcoming Jerwood Encounters exhibition exploring the relationship contemporary sculpture practice shares with the environment and landscape beyond the gallery itself. The exhibition is curated by Hayley Skipper and Antony Mottershead of the Forestry Commission England, based at Grizedale Forest and features work by Jonathan Anderson, Edwina Fitzpatrick, Luke Jerram, Anne-Mie Melis and Owl Project. The artists each explore contemporary sculpture practice through their own sensory relationship with the environment and the artwork exposes these ideas through a multiplicity of unique works.
 
Physical form, materials and conceptual intent are often the primary languages used to interpret contemporary sculpture, however as a discipline sculpture also has an intimate relationship with our wider sensory experience. The strategies and processes employed by each of the artists translate information from one form of sensory experience into another. The range of practices included within the curatorial selection are an expansive definition of sculptural practice covering performative and installation based work that engages all of the senses including sound and smell.
 
" This is a really exciting opportunity to explore a wide range of approaches to contemporary sculpture practice by artists from across the UK. In different ways each of the artists uses the gallery to explore our wider relationship to the environment. The exhibition seeks to provide a multi-sensory experience as well as a sculptural investigation of the emerging geological era the Anthropocene ."
Hayley Skipper, Curator - Arts Development
 
An exhibition catalogue will be available including a foreword written by Joy Sleeman, Head of Taught Courses in History and Theory of Art at UCL Slade School of Fine Art, sculpture historian and distinguished writer on Land Art.
 
Exhibiting Artists:
 
Jonathan Anderson works with coal dust and other elemental substances. His work expresses the cyclical nature of things and provides an ideal vehicle for the exploration of poetic metaphor and transformation. It talks about shutting off, making still, stepping out of sequential time and ultimately death. Anderson has exhibited his work widely across Wales and in April 2010 he was the recipient of the Richard and Rosemary Wakelin Purchase Prize at The Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea.
 
Edwina Fitzpatrick explores living environments that involve mutability and change and reflects upon how climate change may affect this delicate balance. Her work also celebrates narratives and conversations, which are often deeply informed by the history of place. Fitzpatrick often collaborates with experts across a range of disciplines including horticulturalists, biodiversity experts, architects, perfumers, foresters, and composers. Fitzpatrick is currently completing a Ph.D. with Glasgow School of Art in collaboration with Grizedale Forest and developing practice based research in relation to the development of the environmental art archive at Grizedale.
 
Luke Jerram creates sculptures, installations, live art projects and gifts fusing his artistic sculptural practice with his scientific and perceptual studies. Jerram’s ongoing research of perception is fueled by the fact that he is colour-blind. He studies the qualities of space and perception in extreme locations, from the freezing forests of Lapland to the sand dunes of the Sahara desert allowing new ways of seeing. A multidisciplinary artist, Jerram develops extraordinary public projects and is currently working on a number of complex and ambitious new works. His celebrated street pianos installation Play Me I'm Yours is currently being shown in many different cities around the world.
 
Anne-Mie Melis’ work explores the visual nature of plants and their role in an increasingly technological world. Combining sculpture, animation and drawing in innovative installations to ignite our senses and expose her questioning of the environment, the engineering of nature and our changing climate. The collaborative nature of Melis’s practice brings together art and science, the twin engines of cultural evolution. She recently completed a Leverhulme Trust supported Residency at the School of Bioscience, Cardiff University.
 
Owl Project consists of Simon Blackmore, Antony Hall and Steve Symons. Working collaboratively they create musicmaking instruments and machines that combine electronics and software with traditional techniques such as green woodworking and wooden water wheels. In 2009 they won Urbis' Best of Manchester Award and their proposal for a floating waterwheel driven musical instrument was selected for Arts Council England's Artists Taking the Lead North East commission, one of 12 commissions for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
 
Jerwood Visual Arts will host a series of evening events on 21, 25 and 28 November to accompany the exhibition. Events are free but must be booked in advance. For more information contact Parker Harris or check the Jerwood Visual Arts website.

 
JERWOOD SPACE
171 Union Street
London
SE1 OLN
T: + 44 (0) 20 7654 0171
 
 
 
 

 
CHERRY AND MARTIN, Los Angeles
 
 
Erik Frydenborg - Dr. (illegible)
 
Erik Frydenborg
Courtesy of Cherry & Martin, Los Angeles
 
 
ERIK FRYDENBORG
Dr. (illegible)
 
November 5 - December 17, 2011
 
In his second solo exhibition at Cherry and Martin, Erik Frydenborg develops a sustained examination of a single, found scholastic illustration. Through a series of dissections, alterations, and physical reconstructions of the original image, Frydenborg merges elements of collage, sculpture, display architecture, and a “timeline” of taxonomic wall reliefs, constructing a chimerical museum environment. In an elliptical blending of analysis and fiction, the objects on view are presented as historical artifacts from the obsolescent work of a vaguely described, possibly delusional academic-- likely discredited in his methods, and separated by an irretrievable distance from our own era.
 
In its staging of these ersatz specimens, Dr. (illegible) traces a quixotic combination of morphologic diagnosis with the lyrical composition of abstract parts. The exhibition’s central illustration—a once discernable machine surgically reduced to an illogical hull and its extracted organs— is recreated as a wooden model and a set of colored plastic morphemes. These molded symbols are incorporated into an ordered sequence of linear display, where their repetition and chromatic coding suggest the transcription of a musical score, an archaeological catalog, or a hieroglyphic system of unknown purpose.
 
Conceived as a notional sketch of an apocryphal atmosphere, Dr. (illegible) searches for new structures and cadences that might be gleaned from disused, apparently defunct information. Frydenborg explores a tension between organized presentation and redacted instruction-- modulating a semblance of informative display that is missing its explanatory text, and employing the subsequent cipher as an instrument unto itself. In his allusion to the indistinct namesake of the exhibition, Frydenborg invokes the figure of the doctor both as self-parody, as a caricature of moldering patriarchy, and as a paean to the hyperbolic character of the lost polymath.
 
Erik Frydenborg received his BFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art and his MFA from the University of Southern California. His work has been reviewed in such publications as Artforum, Artweek and the Los Angeles Times. Frydenborg is currently the subject of a solo exhibition at The Suburban (Chicago, IL); and his work has recently appeared in On Forgery: Is One Thing Better Than Another? at LA><ART (Los Angeles); They Have Not the Art to Argue With Pictures at Cherry at Martin (Los Angeles); and Touchy Feely at Human Resources Los Angeles. Frydenborg lives and works in Los Angeles.

 
CHERRY AND MARTIN
2712 S. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034
T: +1 310.559.0100
 
 
 
 
 re-title.com 
BM Box 5163
London
WC1N 3XX
United Kingdom
+44 (0) 870 922 0438