calendario eventi  :: 

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27/2/2008

Two exhibitions

Gimpel Fils, London

Robert Adams, Patrick Caulfield, Michael Craig-Martin, Claude Heath, Hannah Maybank, Andrew McDonald, Ben Nicholson, Julian Opie

What is an outline? A sketch, an abstract, a preparatory drawing? Or a line that contains, that maps and defines? This exhibition brings together a selection of art works made since the late 1940s which are themselves outlines or which utilize outlines to compose the subject of the work. The transition from initial thoughts, seen in the work of Robert Adams, to the formal utilization of outlines by Michael Craig-Martin demonstrates that the outline, in all its guises, is an indispensible artistic tool.

An outline sketch helps us organize our thoughts. Ideas take shape on the page and lines become suggestive of what is to come. Robert Adams' preparatory drawings for sculptures are akin to mental maps; we can see his ideas change and develop as he tests new shapes and relationships on the paper. The intricate plans of Hannah Maybank's drawings on tracing paper mark the intersection between an initial idea and the creation of a finished painting. Her overlaid lines not only exist in their own right but form an outline for an as yet unrealized work.

The outline also charts and defines the subject. In the work of Julian Opie and Andrew McDonald, the human figure takes form through a combination of lines. Pure clean lines do away with extraneous detail and present a bold confident pose, while scratchy and cross-hatched animated lines become imbued with emotional and expressive content respectively.

Outlines delineate what is inside and outside; they map architectural spaces in the painting of Patrick Caulfield and natural landscapes in Claude Heath's work. Lines contain space and chart gradients, they suggest alternative ways of viewing our environments. More than being representational scenes, physical space is translated in pictorial terms through balance and counterpoise.

The outline has a double role. It marks the surface of the paper or canvas whilst also establishing a structure through which we can negotiate the objects under consideration. On the one hand we are in awe of the economy of Ben Nicholson's etchings and Michael Craig-Martin's clean and classical lines. On the other hand, we are engrossed with how both artists are preoccupied with a series of motifs that appear consistently in their work. Their sustained meditation of form and balance through the depiction of such items as goblets or shoes encourages us to reconsider how we perceive everyday objects.

Downstairs: Clare Gasson

1. Come in to the gallery. Walk down the stairs and stand for a moment in the ante-room. Be aware of the mirrors that capture your likeness, reminding you of your physical presence in an enclosed space. This is an introduction of what is to come.

2. Draw back a curtain and enter the main space.

3. Walk around the stage, look at the works on display. Be conscious of your body in the space. Listen to the spoken words filling the space and feel their resonant echoes. Become aware that conversations surround you physically but you cannot contribute to them. Think about the social structures that confine and constrict our interaction with others.

4. Draw back another curtain and enter a smaller, darker space. Put on the headphones and sit.

5. Watch the film The Ballad of Albatross Way. Consider the film's circular movement in relation to your own still position in the darkened room. Listen to the ebb and flow of a narrative that takes you on an emotional journey.

6. Stand up and walk back through the gallery, pausing in each space. Climb the stairs reflecting on the theatre of the physical environment in which Clare's work has been exhibited.

7. Read a copy of the performed script that is available at the reception at the top of the stairs. Think about how Clare's work exists beyond the usual boundaries of art objects. Sound exists as an object held in your hand and becomes portable across space and time.

8. Invite Clare to read to you at home, in the office, in the park or in a cafe. Become inspired by the knowledge that Clare's art is portable and exists beyond the limits of a gallery. The exhibition travels, traverses boundaries and echoes across the city.

Clare Gasson received her MA in Fine Art from Goldsmith's College in 2004. Her practice involves working with cinematic imagery in sound, text and performance. Working with real and imagined architectural spaces, her art seeks to implicate audiences both physically and psychologically. Moving around these spaces, Clare's work prompts us to consider the various systems of power that impact our lives.

Clare's solo exhibition A Little Light Music, was held at Parker's Box, Brooklyn, USA, as part of the Sound Exchange with The Showroom, London, in 2006. Recent exhibitions and publications include: New Work UK: The Sensible Stage screening at Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2008; Into the Melting a solo show for the Passerby series at Guestroom, London 2007; Fold'07 launched at Late at Tate, Tate Britain 2007; clickanywhere- http://clickanywhere.crisap.org 2007; Untitled, issue 40, 2007; Eau Sauvage I, Galerie Lucy Mackintosh, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2006; Mind the Gap, Galerie de la Friche Belle de Mai, Marseille, France 2004.

As noted in point 8, Clare Gasson is available to read to audience members on a one to one outside the confines of the gallery space. If you would like to participate in this project please contact the gallery.

With special thanks to sound designer Gernot Fuhrmann .

Private view: Thursday 28 February, 6-8pm with a performance by John Milroy and Sylvia Cohen at 7pm

Gimpel Fils
30 Davies Street - London
Gallery opening hours: Mon - Fri 10am - 5.30pm, Sat 11am - 4pm
Free admission

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