Es (the above I)
dal 4/5/2007 al 29/5/2007
Segnalato da
4/5/2007
Es (the above I)
Catalyst Arts, Belfast
The exhibition showcases new commissions from 4 international artists who, despite having diverse practices and outcomes, all share the same departure point, that is drawing. On view a broad range of works: drawings, paintings, sculptures, installations and films.
Group show
Catalyst Arts is proud to present Es. This exhibition is showcasing new commissions from four international artists who are both gaining recognition for, and are in the practice of fully realising artworks of a highly substantive, qualitative and contemporaneous nature. Albeit the outcomes are very diverse, the four artists chosen share a common thread in their practice. The departure point for them all is drawing which underscores their methodologies, but the show Es presents a prismatic range of end results, from drawings on paper or directly onto the gallery walls, through to painting, sculpture, installation and film. It offers an opportunity to compare and contrast the ways in which the exhibiting artists combine these different media within their practises.
A delicate web of connections, spanning three vibrant artistic communities unites these works. The title for the show reflects this element of connectivity and translation. The image has the word ES written in the sky; the German for IT. The Freudian term for the division of the psyche is Es, Ich, Überich (id, ego, superego), yet its direct translation is "It, I, over I". However, if one does a search for a translation online, one gets "The Above I". This also serves as a suitable metaphor for the act of drawing itself as gaining understanding of the world through the eye of the artist; processed in the psyche and expressed by the artist's hand, it consequently translates the world into moments of resolved meaning. This form of translation also hints at man's metaphysical conundrum of trying to gain understanding of our position in the universe: the IT (everything) above I (the individual).
These subtly evolving semantic links furthermore serve as a metaphor for the interconnectivity of the artists' practice, highlighting the similarities and differences informed by their cultural surroundings.
The Artists
Lucy Skaer, Glasgow, New York
Skaer's practice incorporates many artistic techniques, from drawing, to interventions in the street, to scientific collaboration. Lucy's drawings utilise found imagery reinterpreted through known compositional structures such as Venn and Rorschach inkblots.
James McLardy, Glasgow
James McLardy's pencil drawings are in part the result of a process of collage which aim to contrast and highlight idiosyncratic depictions of specific materials; hair, rock, smoke, hay, bone and tree trunks are among some of the sources of investigation in these drawings. McLardy uses the intensity of drawing as a means of exploring the narrative possibilities and gestures of an object in order to develop an imagined sculptural landscape.
Katrin Plavcak, Berlin
Looking at Katrin Plavcak's pictures is to be drawn into a bewildering and enthralling visual universe that recalls cinematic film, and literature. The artist shows strange incidents and often overlooked moments of change or metamorphosis, depicting the moments immediately preceding and following the critical moment itself. Inspiration is drawn from fiction, movies, newspapers and personal photographs, from which single scenes are extracted and transformed into powerful narrative stills. Overall, the resulting creations are bewildering, eerie and suspenseful. .
Christian Schwarzwald, Berlin
Christian Schwarzwald's work can be interpreted as a system of signs. Schwarzwald uses individual images as building blocks to construct a personal artistic language, one that articulates and responds to a perplexing and contradictory reality, and attempts to adequately reflect its complexity. The result is a refreshingly diverse and polyvocal collection of drawings presented in a playful and engaging manner in order to create a unified whole. While many other artists employ mixed media in their work Schwarzwald uses drawings to occupy the space of the most divergent visual media, allowing drawing to become the medium of a powerful homogenisation.
Catalyst Arts
5 College Court - Belfast