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7/7/2004

Lilith

Motinternational, London

SONIA BOYCE, STEVE COLSON, LOUISE HARRIS, RUNA ISLAM, MELANIE STIDOLPH

The Myth of Lilith appears in a number of different forms across various religions. Lilith is both, inspiration; giver of knowledge, the strong autonomous woman, while at the same time portrayed as a night demon that strangles babies, possesses young women through mirrors and seduces men away from their wives. Jewish Myth casts Lilith as made of the same dust and time as Adam; she refuses to be his sexual inferior and escapes Eden, using her superior knowledge. God is unable to persuade her to return and makes Eve from the rib of Adam in an attempt to ensure woman's subservience to man. Material refuses its intended purpose rebelling against its creator’s authorship.

What interested MOT about this myth are its oppositional interpretations and subsequent appropriations. We became interested in how one word could act as a structural framework rather than merely a theme that could function as frame, context or buffer for the work in its shadow. MOT looked for work that questions its own nature and its material make up offering ambiguous readings, both satisfying and frustrating interpretation in its relation to the viewer and the context of the exhibition.

Sonia Boyce's own image has disappeared from her reflection, instead it is her collaborators or should we say their voices and music that are presented in her work. Boyce will be showing we meet through you, two separate CD's of two singers, Martin and Jinya, singing three different songs each which are accessed through one set of headphones, one singer in each ear. The two singers have never met yet their voices come together in the head of the viewer who also has Martin and Jinya's photographic portraits, documenting their task, as an extra point of reference.

As the only male artist in Lilith, Steve Colson fittingly provides a work, which mirrors the ridiculous position adopted by Adam within the Jewish myth and Lilith's subsequent misrepresentation by the patriarch. Colson will be showing a two-part piece, The Philosopher, a toy frog with pink rubber penis that hangs from a rusty hook cackling and gibbering and The Golden Path a sculpture of a puddle of piss.

Louise Harris employs traditional crafts; such as watercolour painting or felt making, commonly associated with feminine production to render beautiful women and religious scenes. Rather than adhering to the stereotypical implications of her materials Harris is able to transcend the craft through the scale and subject of each piece.

Runa Islam explores the nature of film, examining its narrative structure and relationship to reality. When invited to exhibit she expressed an interest in the role of the mirror within the myth pointing to the strong comparisons with a body of her own work. Islam has made a number of pieces that study the nature of the look or gaze, its relation to the reflected image and the viewer's relationship to it. She will be showing Unreconciled, a video of a young woman with her back turned to the camera. Shot in one-minute episodes the women never turns, her look is denied

Melanie Stidolph's medium is photography, long held to be a mirror to reality, with the capacity to seduce and shock through the horror of recognition. Stidolph presents an image of a naked young boy having just dismounted a swing in a lush garden, the last days of summer, gloriously back lit by the late afternoon sun. By chance the pose and setting are classical reminiscent of an early religious masterpiece and although no narrative is intended the work acts as an open book onto which the viewer can project their own reading.

So gaze into MOT's mirror and reflect upon what appears to you.

Private view Thursday 8th July 6 pm - 9pm

Future Exhibitions at MOT
I am The Wrath of God
27th August until 1st October 2004.
Rodney Graham, Chris Hammond (artist/curator), Mike Kelly, Martin Kippenberger, Paul McCarthy(TBC).

Open Fri, Sat, Sun 12-5 or by appointment

MOT
Unit 54/5th floor Regents Studios
8 Andrews Road London E8 4QN
Bethnal Green Underground Bus 394,106,253,26,48,55,D6, D3, 8
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