Simon Starling
dal 26/2/2004 al 3/4/2004
Segnalato da
26/2/2004
Simon Starling
Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York
In his exploration of history, geography, economics and design, Starling creates complex narrative situations that suggest previously unacknowledged connections. With transformation, displacement and re-crafting of seemingly common objects, Starling presents links between cultures and histories that have been observed, collected and unpacked by the artist for this ambitious show.
Casey Kaplan is pleased to present the second solo exhibition of Simon
Starling in New York. In his exploration of history, geography, economics
and design, Starling creates complex narrative situations that suggest
previously unacknowledged connections. With transformation, displacement and
re-crafting of seemingly common objects, Starling presents links between
cultures and histories that have been observed, collected and unpacked by
the artist for this ambitious show. The layers of subsequent information
point to an optimistic (yet failed) modernist past and its significance for
the future.
For this exhibition, made especially for New York, Starling focuses his
attention on simple design and engineering problems. The artist continues
his on-going interest in both hand-made versus industrially-made objects,
lightweight technologies versus heavy industry, and again incorporates the
chair and the bicycle as exemplary, primary design structures.
The starting point for this show conflates two tales of taxation. The first
culminated in a landmark court case between the Romanian born artist,
Constantin Brancusi, and US Customs. 'Bird in Space, 2004' collapses this
landmark event onto the contemporary situation concerning steel tariffs. In
March 2002, George Bush imposed a 40% tax on imported steel. The tariffs
were recently abolished after being deemed illegal by the World Trade
Organization. Subsequently, a 4,901lb steel plate has been imported from
Romania and now floats effortlessly in the New York gallery space, supported
only by hi-tech, light-weight, helium-filled inflatable jacks, its absurd
weight nullified by a simple piece of contemporary technology.
Diametrically opposed to the steels incredible weight is an ultra-light
carbon fibre chair, a re-refined modernist design based on Gio Ponti's 1951
'Superleggera' chair. The Italian architect produced the elegant, light
chair by reworking a traditional folk design. Starling takes this process
one logical step further, using the lightest available material to up-date
the chair still further.
Hand-made platinum prints, produced following a journey to a South African
platinum mine, depict a home-made three-legged stool found in Cluj, Romania
- a mobile support for the body. An image of a contorted wheel originally
attached to a hand-built prototype for a five-man bicycle is also presented.
This vehicle was based on a lightweight design pioneered by the Danish
engineer, Mikael Pedersen who had taken the geometry for his design from the
Whipple-Murphy triangulated bridge truss. On its first road test, the
strength of the five-man bicycles standard wheels were pushed beyond their
tensile capabilities and were eventually replaced with stronger purpose
built wheels. While 'Carbon (Urban)' is a fully laden moped, improvised from
a bicycle and a chainsaw. It leans somewhat precariously on its stand - a
conflicted micro-economic model, poised between the energy efficient bicycle
and the noisy, polluting, internal combustion engine.
Simon Starling has recently been announced a finalist for the Hugo Boss
Prize 2004 by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY. Since his last
exhibition in New York, Starling has had solo exhibitions at Villa Arson
Nice, France; MACRO, Rome, Italy; Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, Scotland
and Museum of Modern Art, Sydney, Australia. The artist represented Scotland
in the 50th International Exhibition of Art, Venice Bienniale, Italy. Recent
group shows include: 'Outlook,' International Art Exhibition, Athens,
Greece; 'Moving Pictures,' Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain;
'GNS,' Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France and 'The Moderns,' Castello di Rivoli,
Torino, Italy.
OPENING: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH, 6 Â 8 PM
GALLERY HOURS: TUESDAY Â SATURDAY 10 Â 6 PM
FOR FURTHER EXHIBITION INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT THE GALLERY AT:
TEL. 212 645 7335 FAX. 212 645 7835
CASEY KAPLAN WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE ARMORY SHOW, NY MARCH 11-15, 2004
NEXT EXHIBITION: ANNA GASKELL - APRIL 8 Â MAY 8, 2004
AMY ADLER, JEFF BURTON, NATHAN CARTER, MILES COOLIDGE, JASON DODGE, TRISHA
DONNELLY, CEAL FLOYER, PAMELA FRASER, ANNA GASKELL, LIAM GILLICK, ANNIKA VON
HAUSSWOLFF, CARSTEN HÖLLER, JONATHAN MONK, DIEGO PERRONE, SIMON STARLING,
ANNIKA STRÖM, JOHANNES WOHNSEIFER
Casey Kaplan
416 West 14th Street
New York, NY 10014
T/ 212 645 7335
F/ 212 645 7835