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10/6/2014

Jimmie Durham

Parasol Unit, London

Curated by Ziba Ardalan

Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art is delighted to present the work of artist Jimmie Durham in a solo exhibition from 12 June to 9 August 2014 (preview 11 June, 6:30 to 9 p.m.).

For this exhibition Durham has created a new installation that covers the entire gallery space of the foundation. While the installation on the ground floor is vivid, physical and colourful, the installation on the first floor is sedate, ethereal, and black and white.

In the ground-floor gallery, the protagonists are brightly painted oil barrels coated with ‘chameleon’ automobile paint, which changes colour in relation to one’s varying standpoint, and include what appear to be skeletons and animal bones but are actually brightly painted plastic replicas. Automobile parts are scattered about and the site is complete with plastic pipes seeping what appear to be chemicals and oil, and other such industrial spillages, but are made of coloured acrylic gel. For the artist, Jimmie Durham, the general aspect of the work recalls an observation by Walter Benjamin that the rainbow colours in a thin film of oil on a puddle of rainwater is the best sign of modern times.

In the main area of the first-floor gallery the artist has created an installation for the walls. They are covered by sheets of drawing paper on which can be seen the sparse, black-and-white contours of animal forms. In the smaller section of this gallery we are screening Durham’s 90-minute video entitled Smashing.

Durham has often referred to the strange ubiquity of oil barrels in our contemporary environment. He describes his installation at Parasol unit as ‘beautiful death’, which, despite all that is going on in it, would look sparse, almost austere – if only it were not so cheerful.

Durham is an artist, poet and prominent writer. His eclectic artistic practice spans five decades and is sustained by an investigative and remarkably creative mind. Primarily comprised of sculpture and installation, it also includes drawing, photography, performance and video. Many of his works are collages or collections of discarded objects and fragments of organic matter, the nature of which he intelligently and astutely transforms and often paints in dazzling colours. His work commonly refers to the attributes of mankind and animals, their life and past history.

Jimmie Durham (1940–) is an artist, writer and poet born in the United States of America. Curated by Ziba Ardalan, Founder/ Director, Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art.

Jimmie Durham: Traces and Shiny Evidence is accompanied by a related programme of educational events and will include creative writing, poetry, lectures, family workshops and a public talk by the artist.

Artist Biography
Durham has works in a number of major public collections around the world including, Tate Modern, London; MuHKA, Antwerp; the MOCA, Los Angeles, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, IMMA, Dublin and in several international collections in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, UK and USA. Durham’s solo exhibitions in Europe have included MACRO, Rome (2013), Sprovieri, London (2013 and 2010), MuHKA, Antwerp (2012), the Glasgow International Festival (2010), Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (2009) and Matt’s Gallery, London (2006 and 1988). He has also exhibited at various international events such as the Venice Biennale (2013, 2005, 2003, 2001 and 1999), Documenta IX and XIII, Kassel, the Istanbul Biennial (2013), the Whitney Biennial, New York (1993 and 2006), the Taipei Biennial, Taiwan (2012), the Sydney Biennial (2004) and the Gwangju Biennial (2004), Korea.

VISITOR INFORMATION
Founded in December 2004, Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art is a registered educational charity and a non-profit institution that operates purely for the public benefit. Every year the foundation organises four challenging and thought-provoking exhibitions of works by international contemporary artists working in various media, arranges other artistic projects, and gives an Exposure award which offers the possibility of an exhibition to graduating student/s from an annually selected art school in the UK. The foundation also engages with the public and its neighbouring community through a full programme of educational events. In its genuine mission to serve the public, the foundation does not bear the founder’s name and its exhibitions do not derive from any particular private collections. Admission to all exhibitions at Parasol unit is free of charge. Thanks to this innovative model between private funding and public support, one of London’s most vibrant contemporary art spaces has come to exist and thrive.

Images: Courtesy of Jimmie Durham. Photo Kai Vollmer

For further information please contact:
Gemma Colgan
T: +44 (0)20 7490 7373, ext. 24
E: gemma@parasol-unit.org
www.parasol-unit.org

Preview: 11 June 2014, 6.30 – 9 p.m.

Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art
14 Wharf Road, London N1 7RW
Opening hours:
Monday by prior arrangement.
Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Sunday, 12–5 p.m.
Free Admission

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