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6/9/2011

Two Exhibitions

Lisson Gallery, London

Lisson Gallery is proud to present Credit, Faith, Trust, an exhibition of new and recent works from James Casebere’s Landscape with Houses series.

Working at the forefront of constructed photography since the late seventies, Casebere is associated with The Pictures Generation, a group of artists who combined a Pop obsession with media culture with the critical framework of Conceptual Art to redefine photography as a Postmodern medium in the 70s and 80s. Based upon his understanding of architectural, anthropological, art historical and cinematic sources, Casebere’s detailed photographs address contemporary and historical social concerns. His work challenges the boundaries between reality and imagination, whether dealing with alienation in sixties America; addressing slavery and colonialism through black and white visions of cotton mills and covered wagons peppered with native American arrows; or questioning incarceration and the significance of state buildings.

The works in the Lisson exhibition signal a return to the American landscape, a subject Casebere began investigating over thirty years ago with his Life Story works. In the Landscape with Houses series, the artist expresses a fascination with the vernacular notion of home. The images are carefully constructed compositions based on a recreation of the suburban area of Dutchess County in Upstate New York as a model in the artist’s studio. As one might reconstruct an experience of landscape from memory, the model houses were created one by one and only later placed on a set, reassembled in different configurations. Colours, architectural features and details, and the relative scale of parts were revisited several times, resulting in a pastiche of the ideal suburban neighbourhood.

Three words capture the values upon which these communities are, perhaps misguidedly, built: Credit, Faith, Trust. Casebere describes the works in this exhibition as “a response to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, and the madness of the way we live in the age of global warming and the end of oil, when for more reasons than one, the American Dream of home ownership has become a dangerous fantasy.“

The images are almost sinister in their flawed perfection. The aerial viewpoint is reminiscent of territorial survey and thus suggestively omniscient. The alluring colour schemes of the buildings, dazzling sunshine and perfect rainbows are overtly picturesque and suggest a construct of truth. Upon closer inspection missing architectural elements, incongruous scale and unsettling imperfections introduce an element of the surreal.

Following the critical acclaim that the series received at the Whitney Biennal in 2010, three new images have been produced specifically for the Lisson Gallery exhibition and will be presented for the first time. These include two night scenes, which counter the idyllic atmosphere of the day scenes. Dominated by a baseball diamond in the foreground, one of the images portrays a residential neighbourhood of detached houses at dusk. Small bonfires are set up in the gardens, perhaps to signal a celebration. However on closer inspection, some of the fires seem to burn unattended, the flames threateningly close to the houses, and light up the skyline as if they were untamed forest fires. As the dream of home ownership and peaceful suburbia has given way to class homogeneity and a standardisation of style, the fire in these images is not so much a natural threat as the material manifestation of a nightmare; the social threat of economic instability and loss of control.

James Casebere will be in conversation with Mark Godfrey, Curator, Tate Modern and Lisson Gallery’s Curatorial Director, Greg Hilty, Friday 9 September, 12.30 – 1.30pm at Lisson Gallery 52-54 Bell Street.

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Lisson Gallery is delighted to host the world premiere of Christian Jankowski‘s new film, Casting Jesus, opening on 7 September, 2011. The film focuses on an audition to select an actor that best interprets the role of Jesus, judged by a jury of Vatican members.

Using a game show format, 13 professional actors compete for the role of Jesus. A distinguished panel: Monseñor José Manuel del Rio Carrasco, Vatican Priest; Sandro Barbagallo, Art Critic at the Vatican’s L'Osservatore Romano newspaper, and Massimo Giraldi, journalist and Secretary of the Commission for Film Classification of the Italian Bishop Conference, judge the actors as they complete a variety of tasks including, breaking bread, performing a miracle and carrying the cross, as well as dramatic interpretations of their favorite Jesus quotes. Filmed by Jankowski in the Complesso Santo Spirito in Sassia, Rome, and watched via live video stream by a separate audience of 300, the actors are gradually narrowed down to one finalist by the jury.

Jankowski questions how the Catholic Church perceives the artistic representation of Jesus today and how, in turn, this image is translated into modern media. The inspiration for the project came to Jankowski after he chanced upon the filming of The Passion of the Christ in Cinecittà in 2003. During a break in filming, Jankowski witnessed actor James Caviezel, dressed as Jesus and covered in artificial blood, with two priests coaching him to find the right spiritual and artistic expression for the part. Jankowski explains:

“I was inspired by this image and later, when watching The Passion of the Christ in the cinema, it fascinated me knowing James Caviezel’s acting had been informed by experts from within the Church. Director, Mel Gibson’s use of priests as co-directors was intriguing and I wanted to push this concept one step further by letting the Vatican themselves decide who Jesus is.”

In his work, Jankowski often investigates the status of particular film formats and television production, to question their different realities. Through his often humorous and ironic videos, films and performances, he critiques our image-based consumer society. In this new installation, art, religion, reality and fiction are interwoven, blurring the distinctions between each.

Jankowski’s works are ‘performances’ which engage often, unsuspecting collaborators: televangelists, fortune-tellers, border guards and professional magicians, innocently collude with him and become 'co-authors' of the final result. The collaborative nature of Jankowski's practice is paramount as each participant unwittingly contributes his or her own texture to the work. There is as much emphasis on the journey as the destination, and the risks and chances inherent in Jankowski’s collaborations ultimately give surprising shape to the final works, whether these are photographs, paintings, sculptures or video installations. Jankowski as Director also encourages the viewer to become an active participant: allowing him or her to bring to the work their own their own expectations and preconceptions.

Jesus also makes an appearance in a second video work in the exhibition. Collaborating with Mexican Telenovela programme makers, Jankowski’s successfully cast Jesus infiltrated an actual Telenovela episode that was then aired as usual on Mexican television. A series of unique photographs also accompany the film works.

Complesso Santo Spirito, Sassia, Rome, is an ancient hospital complex next to the Vatican and established by Pope Innocent III. Dating back to AD 727, it was traditionally a refuge centre for pilgrims arriving in Rome to visit the Apostle Peter’s tomb.

With special thanks to Valentina Ciarallo and Giacinto Di Pietrantonio who curated the performance, Christian Jankowski - Casting Jesus, in Complesso Santo Spirito on Feb 25, 2011

Info:
Sophie da Gama Campos or Toby Kidd at JBPelhamPR
Tel: +44 20 8969 3959
Email: sophie@jbpelhampr.com or toby@jbpelhampr.com

Image: James Casebere, Samarra, 2007

Opening: September 7th, 2011

Lisson Gallery
29 Bell Street - London
Opening Hours: Monday-Friday 10am-6pm, Saturday 11am-5pm

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