Two exhibitions
dal 16/2/2005 al 2/5/2005
Segnalato da
16/2/2005
Two exhibitions
Barbican Centre, London
Tina Barney, The Europeans. In these photographs she plays with the traditional notion of portraiture in an attempt to capture different aspects of each nationality, as well as to continue her investigation into what constitutes a family. Christian Marclay. Influenced by the anarchic freedom of punk rock and experiential musicians, in his work vinyl records, record covers and musical instruments are transformed into arresting collages, sculptures and video installations.
Tina Barney: The Europeans
This is the first major solo exhibition of the completed series The Europeans by acclaimed contemporary photographer Tina Barney. The exhibition will feature around 50 photographs from this series, including some never previously exhibited images which includes her Spanish, German and French studies.
On show is also a selection of photographs from her well known series of American photographs from the 1980s and early 1990s. Barney first made her reputation in the early 1980s with these large format photographs, which featured members of her own family or those of close friends, in their apartments on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, or at their summer homes on Rhode Island.
In The Europeans, (1996 -2004), Barney continues to focuses on a specific section of society, however, while many of the artist’s American works depict her own family and friends, her European images are of acquaintances she met through a series of personal introductions in Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany, France and England.
In these photographs Barney plays with the traditional notion of portraiture in an attempt to capture different aspects of each nationality, as well as to continue her investigation into what constitutes a family. Central to Barney’s photographs is also the intricate way in which she combines colour, light, pattern and setting with the figures, to create a dense web of associations. This approach also positions her photographs in an interesting dialogue with paintings, especially oil paintings, as do their scale.
When discussing Barney’s use of symbolism as well as her use of either single figure, double portrait or group of three, references can be made to grand historical paintings, or portraits commissioned by the wealthy of the day, to commemorate and confirm their position in society. Parallels can also be drawn between Barney’s use of colour, light and pattern for decorative effect as well as representations of human emotions with paintings, such as those by the French painters, Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) and Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940).
Her approach of collaborating with her subjects in re-staging a specific moment and her use of a large format camera, tripod and artificial light precludes spontaneity and demands premeditated arrangement of the composition, although she does still allow a certain degree of chance to enter her work. This process enables Barney to achieve images of incredible detail and saturation of colour, as well as creating a sense of tension, theatricality and poignancy in her work.
Since the beginning of her photographic career, Barney’s approach to photography and her work has been influential within the shift that has occurred in photography during the latter half of the twentieth century; a shift that has seen artists playing with the boundaries between what is believed to be real and spontaneous in contrast to that which is artificial and staged.
Tina Barney was born in 1945 in New York, where she has been based for most of her life. A self-taught photographer, she began taking photographs in the mid-1970s. Having undertaken some editorial photography, Barney developed her independent career from the early 1980s. Her work is in major collections and she has exhibited in numerous exhibitions. Most recently she has exhibited in the group exhibitions ’Settings and Players’, White Cube, London, 2001, ‘Stepping in and Out’, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2002-03 and ‘Fashioning Fiction in Photography since 1990’, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2004.
Organisation of Exhibition and Catalogue
The exhibition is organised by Barbican Art Gallery.
A book on The Europeans will be published by Steidl to accompany to exhibition.
Associated Events
A series of Wednesday evening talks and events will be programmed throughout the duration of the exhibition.
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Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is that rare breed of artist, equally renowned in the worlds of music and the visual arts. Taking his cue from the gap between what we see and what we hear, the work focuses attention on the way sound is experienced, recorded and translated into visual media.
What happens when you take 700 film clips and mix them together on a PC? The result is Christian Marclay’s celebrated Video Quartet (2002) a 13-minute tour-de-force not to be missed.
Audiotape of the collected work of the Beatles is crocheted into a soft pillow, a graveyard of plaster cast telephone handsets lies scattered across the gallery floor never to be answered, while an oversized drum kit reaches up towards the ceiling of the gallery, too gigantic to ever be played.
Influenced by the anarchic freedom of punk rock and experiential musicians, Marclay pioneered the use of records and turntables as media for performance and improvisation. A similar emphasis on sampling informs his work where vinyl records, record covers, magnetic tape and musical instruments are transformed into arresting and highly entertaining collages, sculptures and video installations.
This exhibition was organised by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and was made possible by generous support from Eileen Harris-Norton and the Peter Norton Family Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the LLWW Foundation; Pro Helvetia, the Arts Council of Switzerland; LEF Foundation; and Art for Arts Sake.
The presentation of this exhibition at Barbican Art Gallery has been generously supported by Pro Helvetia - Art Council of Switzerland
Christian Marclay Live For One Night Only!
Graffiti Composition & Tabula Rasa
Featuring Steve Beresford, Flo Kaufmann and Christian Marclay
Tue 22 Mar 7.30pm
Tickets £15 /£12.50 LSO ST LUKE’S
What happens when you take 5,000 blank music sheets, fly post them across the city of Berlin and ask the public to respond? Intrigued? This is exactly what Swiss artist Christian Marclay did in 1996 to create Graffiti Composition. Come and hear this unique piece performed in London for the first time, arranged by Steve Beresford, one of Britain's leading avant-garde musicians and music writers.
Tabula Rasa brings together DJ Flo Kaufmann and artist Christian Marclay in a live performance where sound is recorded before your eyes.
Flo Kaufmann, equipped with a lathe cutting machine, will engrave in real time the sounds created by Christian Marclay. The set starts with no records and evolves into dense layers of recorded sounds generated by Marclay's turntables and instant recycling of his own live mix. A surprising self generating cycle by one of the pioneers of 'turntablism'.
Graffiti Composition & Tabula Rasa are part of the Only Connect series.
Image: Tina Barney - Jill and Polly in the Bathroom, 1987 - Courtesy Tina Barney/Janet Borden Inc., NY
Barbican Artgallery - Barbican Centre - Silk Street - London EC2Y 8DS
Art Gallery opening times: Daily 11am-8pm - Tuesday & Thursday 11am-6pm
Admission: Tickets: £8; £6 concession