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5/9/2006

Civil Restitutions

Thomas Dane Gallery, London

Curated by Jeffrey Uslip and Simon Preston

"A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out
from the old to the new; when an age ends; and when the soul of a
nation long suppressed finds utterance..."

Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Thomas Dane Gallery is pleased to present Civil Restitutions, a group exhibition of 12 inter-generational American artists proposing a reclamation of civil liberties and socio-political mores within recent US history. Through its conceptual matrix, Civil Restitutions celebrates emancipated forms that strive for restorations in the body, landscape and urban conditions.

The practices in Civil Restitutions hinge on material subversion and present new constructions of otherness: Mary Kelly's use of compressed lint becomes a platform to unpack trauma; Maria Nazor's fusion of indelible cartographic and organic marks manifest what Jameson expressed as "... an imperative to grow new organs"; David Wojnarowicz' seminal photograph Untitled (Face In Dirt) complicates the legibility of a bodily excavation; Kelley Walker's application of scanned toothpaste and silk-screened chocolate fetishizes a queering of history; William Pope.L's use of rotting produce critiques the perishable center; Michael Queenland's depiction of impoverished magic ilustrates racial binaries in America; Jimmie Durham's totemic structure points towards the essentialism of the American Frontier; Daniel Joseph Martinez' subversion of text and poured white house paint invokes notions of piracy and questions reactionary politics in America; Ken Gonzales-Day's contemporary portrait of a tree in California, used to lynch Latinos in the 19th Century, reclaims a pastoral redemption; Leslie Hewitt's use of Alex Haley's Roots brings forward questions of circulation and manipulates fictionalized cultural history as raw material; Ana Mendieta's use of hosiery shifts the female body into fugitive status and David Hammons' depiction of the spade interrogates stereotypes of black masculinity and of hyper-sexualized deviance.

In its revisioning of history and its discourses, Civil Restitutions employs the lens of "abject formalism", a practice whose defining principles undermine formalism's structured, rigid strategies by using depraved, perishable and base materials. Through this approach, the presented practices challenge hierarchy and reverse a cultural amnesia. Rather than merely managing history, Civil Restitutions applies a visceral approach to instigate self awareness; as Rushdie states "we simply could not think our way out of our pasts..."

Artists include: Jimmie Durham, Ken Gonzales-Day, David Hammons, Leslie Hewitt, Mary Kelly, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Ana Mendieta, Maria Nazor, William Pope.L, Michael Queenland, Kelley Walker, and David Wojnarowicz.

Thomas Dane Associates
First Floor
11 Duke Street St James’s London SW1Y 6BN
The gallery is open from Tuesday to Friday 11-6 pm, Saturday 11-4 pm and otherwise by appointment.

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