calendario eventi  :: 

X

7/4/2011

Annie Whiles

Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, London

Watch this: / Ding-a-ling-a-ling / Ding-a-ling-a-ling-ding / Ding-a-ling-a-ling / Ding-a-ling-a-ling-ding / Do-da-do-da / I'm in heaven, I'm in heaven / I'm in heaven, when you smile…
- Van Morrison, Jackie Wilson Said

The work begins with the experience of an ‘encounter’ - for example, the occasion when Whiles saw a donkey smile at her on Blackheath Common. At some point this encounter becomes associated with a Biblical event - with Balaam’s donkey, who speaks to his rider after seeing the angel of the Lord (Numbers 22.21-35). The encounter is then re-enacted, and this is then photographed, and an outline drawing made of the scene, large in scale, to allow for every detail to be recorded. This detailed drawing is then reduced in scale, before being translated into the material of the final work, at which point colour is introduced. By these means, Whiles aims to suspend the observed event: in art-historical terms, ‘between Surrealism and Soviet realism’, and in metaphysical terms, between the quotidian and the miraculous.

So what is the nature of the encounter in Whiles’ work? Martin Buber distinguished between two forms of existential relationship; the Ich-Du (I-Thou) and the Ich-Es (I-It). The I-It relation is between oneself and the idea of a thing, an object, and therefore not really a relationship at all, but a kind of monologue. The I-Thou relation is understood rather as a dialogue between two subjects; the language may be metaphorical, but the relationship is genuine, and as such, a true encounter. One example is Buber’s meeting with a tree:

‘I can look on it as a picture: stiff column in a shock of light, or splash of green shot with the delicate blue and silver of the background. I can perceive it as movement: flowing veins on clinging, pressing pith, suck of the roots, breathing of the leaves, ceaseless commerce with earth and air - and the obscure growth itself. I can classify it in a species and study it as a type in its structure and mode of life. I can subdue its actual presence and form so sternly that I recognize it only as an expression of law... I can dissipate it and perpetuate it in number... In all this the tree remains my object, occupies space and time, and has its nature and constitution. It can, however, also come about, if I have both will and grace, that in considering the tree I become bound up in relation to it. The tree is no longer It…’¹

Of course, encounters with trees (or donkeys) are not the only, nor the most important relations, but for Buber, 'every particular Thou is a glimpse through to the eternal Thou'.² I suspect that Whiles might assent to this, whilst observing that, in any relationship, the odd smile never goes amiss.

[1] Buber, Martin, I and Thou, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 2nd ed., 1958, pp.19-20

[2] ibid., p.99

© Mark Dean 2011

For her second solo show in the gallery, Annie Whiles will be bringing together woodcarving and embroidery.
The drawing of an encounter with a donkey on Blackheath Common has lead Whiles to carve the same donkey in wood in life size form. Its head is turned towards a new audience to ask new questions.
A series of hand-stitched embroideries depict figurative presences in the landscape simultaneously arrested and lost.
A bird made from hair wears an embroided portrait of the artist on its breast mirroring the moment of encounter looking up into a high branch.

Annie Whiles completed her MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in 2000 where is now a lecturer in Art Practice. Selected exhibitions include Pile, Chapter, Cardiff, 2011; The Peckham Experiment, Camberwell Space, 2009; The Fabric of Myth, Compton Verney, 2008; Sideshow, Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, 2007; Metropolis Rise, New Art from London, Shanghai and Beijing, 2006. She lives and works in London.

Image: Blackheath Donkey 2011. Beech and oils 145x140x60 cm

Private View: Friday 8 April 6 - 9 pm

Danielle Arnaud
123 Kennington Road - London SE11 6SF UK
Fri, Sat & Sun 2-6pm (or by appointment)

stampa

permanent link