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5/6/2007

And so it goes

Ex Birreria, Venezia

Artists from Wales

Richard Deacon, Merlin James and Heather & Ivan Morison

Three internationally acclaimed artists from Wales will exhibit at the Arts Council of Wales-hosted exhibition, And so it goes, at the Venice Biennale this year. The exhibition will take place at the same superb site as in previous years – The Ex-Birreria (Old Drehr Brewery) on Giudecca. The site comprises several spaces and, this year, will see part of the exhibition in the spectacular Capannone 1, once the brewery’s expansive storage space. Wales will share the site with the Lebanese Pavilion, the first time the country will be present at the Biennale.

Richard Deacon, Merlin James and Heather & Ivan Morison have all made new work for the 52nd International Art Exhibition, which incorporates a diverse approach to sculpture, painting, sound and film.

Turner Prize winner, Richard Deacon’s practice has consistently challenged and extended notions of what sculpture is, and what it might be. His work communicates the playfulness of an aesthetic freedom that stems from an understanding that art can be made out of anything, deriving its identity and meaning through its context and audiences.

Visiting Capannone 1, Richard became intrigued by the nails that uniformly stud the walls’ surface. Using ceramic, wood and steel, he has created a number of sculptures that are hung from cast bronze nails, effectively reversing the space to use the wall as a floor, continuing his material investigations into how we ‘peg’ representation and meaning to objects.

The painted surfaces of Merlin James’ canvases are testament to the endeavour of the artist over time. They are rich and rewarding and draw the eye back and forth across the canvas. They are playful and gestural and are often slashed, collaged, layered with hair or dirt and can include landscapes, interiors, nude figures, dwellings and doorways.

Whilst articulating a range of human experience (mood, memory, sexuality), James sees his practice as a kind of ‘non-verbal art criticism’ in which his investigations in paint evoke a collage of different painting styles and points of historical reference. He has no interest in subverting tradition but his painting evolves out of a meticulous analysis that remains fresh and, refreshingly, manages to avoid nostalgia.

In 2005 Heather & Ivan Morison acquired a wood in North Wales. They are developing the area of mature conifers into an arboretum, a collection of trees that will be gathered from around the world. As old trees are cleared to make way for new species, they are cut into timber that is used to realise new projects, including much of their work in Venice.

The artists have used as a starting point their recent search of America for the original nomadic groups of people who travelled through the States in house-trucks made from felled timber and the ‘Rockhounds’ who travel to Quartzsite, Arizona to sell crystals and precious stones.

‘Pleasure Island’ is built from the timber of trees that were blown down in their wood early in 2007. The sculpture has a parasitic crystalline form; like a canker or growth that is both beautiful and yet repellent. It also echoes the geodesic forms designed by Buckminster Fuller in the 1940s and popularised as shelters in the 1970s. This work has a ‘sister’ sculpture in the woods in North Wales that can be visited for the duration of the biennale and develops the notion that the structure we see in Venice is somehow a spore that has been carried by the artists between Wales and Italy.

And so it goes is the third representation of artists from Wales at the Venice Biennale of Art and is hosted by the Arts Council of Wales in partnership with the Welsh Assembly Government and numerous other supporters. In 2003 and 2005 Wales made a significant contribution to the Biennale and our 2007 exhibition continues this tradition. Curated by Hannah Firth, the exhibition draws together some of the common threads that run through the work whilst celebrating each artist’s individual practice. The Ex-Birreria itself has also become an integral part of the work and once again its flexibility as an exhibition space has proved invaluable.

Wales at Venice Executive

Michael Nixon, Commissioner
Tel +44 (0) 1743 352131 / Mobile: +44 (0) 7785 298468 Email: michael@walesvenicebiennale.org

Hannah Firth, Curator
Tel: Mobile: +44 (0) 7792 828864/Italian mobile: 00 39 32055 965595 Email: hannah@walesvenicebiennale.org

Nia Roberts, Project Manager
Tel: +44 (0) 29 2037 6550 / Mobile: +44 (0) 7900 250712 Email: nia@walesvenicebiennale.org

The Executive is based at the Arts Council of Wales, 9 Museum Place, Cardiff CF10 3NX, Wales, UK. 00 44 (0)29 20376550 email info@walesvenicebiennale.org

And so it goes: Artists from Wales is hosted by the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government and supported by: Arts & Business Cymru; British Council; Castle Fine Arts; Chapter; The Colwinston Charitable Trust; The Contemporary Art Society for Wales; The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation; Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac; The Henry Moore Foundation; Lisson Gallery; Marian Goodman Gallery; Molino Stucky Venice Hilton; Nelmes Design; Public Art Wales; Tŷ Nant and Wales Arts International.

In collaboration in Venice with Nuova Icona Cultural Association.

Image: Merlin James, 'Welder' 2001 acrylic on canvas. Photo: Ruth Clarke

Press Contact
To arrange interviews/photo opportunities with the artists or Curator/Commissioner please contact Eluned Hâf: +44 (0)7834458501 or email elunedhaf@una-europa.com

Vernissage Opening
Wednesday 6 June 10.00 – 19.00
Thursday 7 June 10.00 – 17.00
Friday 8 and Saturday 9 June 10.00 – 19.00
Press breakfast Friday 8 June 10.00 – 12.00

The Ex-Birreria Drehr, Giudecca is reached from Palanca stop.
Vaporetto line 82 from Zattere, Dorsoduro or San Zaccaria (San Marco)
Line 41 from Piazzale Roma or 42 direct from Giardini or Arsenale
Please follow pavement stickers from Palanca to the Ex-Birreria.

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