Aziz + Cucher
dal 15/1/2014 al 8/3/2014
Segnalato da
15/1/2014
Aziz + Cucher
Gazelli Art House (new location), London
The works in the exhibition will focus on their continued interest in representing the landscape through a stylised visual vocabulary that is lyrical, meditational and at times foreboding. On view 4 complex video installations.
From 16th January 2014, Gazelli Art House will host a major exhibition of new photography
and animations made by the artist duo Aziz + Cucher who have been life partners and
collaborators since 1992.
The works in the exhibition will focus on their continued interest in representing the
landscape through a stylised visual vocabulary that is lyrical, meditational and at times
foreboding.
The exhibition will include a new installation of Time of the Empress from their critically
acclaimed Some People, an exhibition of four complex video installations that attempts to
wrestle with the underlying madness of everyday life amidst political turmoil throughout the
Middle East. Focusing largely on the strain between society’s aspiration for progress and the
cyclical nature of history, the works in Some People show the stark contrast between things
feeling as if they are progressing and knowing that they are always staying the same.
This new version of Time of the Empress (2012) will contain several large flat-screen panels
hung from the ceiling of the gallery, displaying a series of animated drawings that present
modernist buildings in an endless loop of simultaneous construction and disintegration.
Through a labour-intensive animation process, these architectural drawings are suspended in
a cycle of growth and dissolution, creation and destruction – like a series of Towers of Babel
- simultaneously rising and collapsing. This constant movement alludes to the Book of
Ecclesiastes: “There is nothing new under the sun,” where history repeats itself, empires rise
and fall, and time is fleeting and ephemeral. Time of The Empress casts a meditational glance
at historical cycles of growth and decay and the impermanence of the present.
Alongside this video installation new works from their Scenapse series will be presented for
the first time. Continuing their exploration of digital manipulation Aziz + Cucher produce
disorienting images of landscapes, trees, water and flowers. They manipulate pixels to great
effect, lending ordinary natural scenes a simultaneously dark and fantastical quality. In
Scenapse #8 (Desert Nocturne) the varying texture and density of each and every bush, branch and leaf creates a sense of constant flux; a seemingly traditional landscape is
transformed into an enigmatic other-world that is saved from prettiness by the sense that
they have been eaten away from within. Nothing is solid; everything is permeable, lacy,
almost transparent. The works in this series have been described as ‘electronic
impressionism’ and this remains true of new pieces being unveiled at the show.
Seen together, these two bodies of work evoke feelings of fragility and transience, qualities
that are part of both the natural and man-made world.
Aziz + Cucher
Since the beginning of their career together in 1992, Aziz + Cucher have worked in a variety
of media including digital imaging, sculpture, animation, and video-installation. They were
considered pioneers of digital manipulation in fine art photography in the 1990s and their
work features in prominent collections worldwide, including San Francisco’s Museum of
Modern Art and the Fond National d’Art Contemporain in Paris. The artists also represented
Venezuela in the 1995 Venice Biennale.
Image: Time of the Empress, © Aziz + Cucher
Opening: Thursday 16th January, 2014
Gazelli Art House
39 Dover Street, London, W1
Hours:
MONDAY - FRIDAY 10:00 - 18:00
SATURDAY 11:00 – 19:00
SUNDAY By appointment only.