23/6/2010
Lilah Fowler and Dan Miller
Cartel, London
Modal. A two-person exhibition of Lilah Fowler and Dan Miller, curated by Oliver Basciano, are the inaugural show of the gallery. Modal takes its direction from the exhibition space it occupies, a shipping, or intermodal, container, to investigate the process of mathematic deduction and its relation to visual abstraction, together with highlighting the infinity suggested by universal measurements.
curated by Oliver Basciano
Cartel is pleased to present Modal, a two-person exhibition of Lilah Fowler and Dan Miller, curated by Oliver Basciano, as its inaugural show. Modal takes its direction from the exhibition space it occupies, a shipping, or intermodal, container, to investigate the process of mathematic deduction and its relation to visual abstraction, together with highlighting the infinity suggested by universal measurements.
Invented by trucking entrepreneur Malcolm McLean, the container revolutionised the transportation of goods in the mid-1950s by severely cutting down on the manpower needed to unload ships. McLean ensured the universal success of his idea by giving up its patent: resulting in the mass international take-up on his economic means of goods distribution through the universal design - and measurements - of his box. The exactitude of the volume within a container has even resulted in the unit term the 'twenty-foot equivalent'. Modal pays homage to the logistics of this transportation system by employing space-logical symmetry in its curation: two artists will display two works. When packing a ship odd numbers do not pay. The number two is the minimalist of all non-singular digits: it is the basis of integers, the lowest prime number, the first of the Pell-Lucas numbers. It is the basis that all counting must be catalysed from. The one is just the one, the two suggests more; one container is a container, two works suggests a shipment.
Working in both painting and sculpture, Glasgow-based Dan Miller's work pares the subject down to its most minimal of forms; the simplicity of the evident material belying the complex mental process operating beneath the surface. For Modal , Miller exhibits Factum I and Factum II, (2010), a diptych - titularly referencing Robert Rauschenberg's 1957 work - which investigates the viewer's relationship with repetition and duality. The works are inexact replications of each other, leaving the viewer in a state of quandary over hierarchy and their relationship. The works operate separately but the viewer cannot help but project singularity onto them. A similar duality exists in Future Fiction and By Unknown Means (2009), two stainless steel sculptures by London-based Lilah Fowler. There angular geometric forms reflect each other back and forth. On viewing one, the viewer can always perceive two. Yet, again the reflected version of the second will always be an imperfect distortion. Simultaneously from varying angles, the geometric folds can appear flat, causing confusion in the recognition process and articulating the complex relationship between objects and space, volume and measurement.
Lilah Fowler studied sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art and MA Sculpture at the Royal College of Art. Solo exhibitions include the Corn Exchange Gallery Edinburgh (2009) and Brown, London (2009), whom she is represented by. In 2010 Fowler has exhibited as part of Architectural Disorder curated by Launch Collaborative at Oxfordshire Visual Arts Development Agency and Peeping Tom curated by Keith Coventry at Vegas, London. Lilah Fowler lives and works in London.
Dan Miller studied Fine Art Painting at the Glasgow School of Art. Solo exhibitions include DUNK! Copenhagen, SWG3 Glasgow, Atelier Am Eck Düsseldorf and the Grace & Clark Fyfe Gallery at the Glasgow School of Art. In 2010 Miller's solo exhibition Still Life was staged in SWG3's offsite space to coincide with Glasgow International. Group shows include Galerie Mark Müller Zürich, Southside Studios Glasgow, Embassy Edinburgh. In November 2010 Miller will take the CPH AIR residency at the Factory for Art & Design, Copenhagen. Dan Miller lives and works in Glasgow.
Modal is curated by Oliver Basciano . He is Assistant Editor at ArtReview magazine and has written for a variety of others including Modern Painters, MAP, Wallpaper, Building Design and Architect's Journal . In 2010 he curated Meteor at New Court Gallery, Derbyshire and sits on the Bold Tendencies IV curatorial committee.
Cartel is a new project space in South East London presenting curatorial experiments in contemporary art. Housed in a black shipping container, Cartel's programme is decided by a flexible consortium of international members, proposing 6 projects a year starting June 2010. Previews will coincide every other month with the Deptford Last Fridays - the late night gallery evening on every last friday of the month- with Bar provided by The Old Police Station.
Image: Dan Miller, Still Life installation view. Courtesy the artist and SWG3, Glasgow
Opening Thurs 24th June, 6-9pm
Cartel
Shipping Container 1
Operations Yard, Entrance via Napier Close, 114 Amersham Vale, London SE14 6LG
Open Fri-Sat 12-4pm + by appointment
free admission