Frith Street Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent sculptures, drawings and prints by Fiona Banner. The exhibition demonstrates Banner's on-going fascination with language and how it appears around us in the urban environment. In her new works, she continues to examine the relationship between words and imagery, language and experience.
Frith Street Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent sculptures,
drawings and prints by Fiona Banner. The exhibition demonstrates Banner's
on-going fascination with language and how it appears around us in the urban
environment. In her new works, she continues to examine the relationship
between words and imagery, language and experience.
The ground floor galleries are scattered with 3 dimensional insults, a list of
slurs compiled by the artist from personal experience. For Banner these terms
of frustration and exasperation have an immediacy or liveliness, they signify
disappointment, they're infantile, they're the opposite of love, occurring in the
moments before language breaks down, their blunt sentiment is echoed in the
work's very basic mode of production.
The large graphite work Black Blind takes the form of a walk-in drawing or
space confuser, like the curtain screening off the x-rated section in a video
store. This intensely worked pencil drawing is slashed to form a vertical blind.
The many lines of which it is comprised are consumed by the sheer scale to
become a physical entity. The silvery surface is elusive and untouchable, yet
seductive, its silky sheen reminiscent of hair.
Two neons - Spell 1 and Spell 2 are made from the smashed words of
discarded neon signs. Because it contains a mixture of highly toxic gases and
chemicals this fragile material once broken is seldom repaired. Here they have
been reformed into shapes reminiscent loops or thought bubbles they
regenerate language both physically and metaphorically.
Fiona Banner is one of the four short listed artists in this year's Turner Prize
and her work can be seen in The Turner Prize Exhibition at Tate Britain from
30 October until 5 January 2003. She has also been commissioned to create a
large- scale public art-work adjacent to London's new City Hall, this will be
completed in July 2003. The first monograph dedicated to the artist's work with
texts by critic Michael Archer, artist and curator Patricia Ellis and curator
Katrina Brown, will available in September. BANNER, is published by Dundee
Contemporary Arts, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein and Revolver and will be
available at the gallery.
Image: Fiona Banner 'Spell (2)' 2002 neon light 85 x 86 cm
OPENING TIMES
Tuesday to Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 11am - 4pm
Frith Street Gallery
59-60 Frith Street
London W1D 3JJ UK
Nearest tube: Tottenham Court Road
Buses: 8,10,19,24,25,38,55,73,176
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7494 1550
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7287 3733