Helen Brown
dal 17/11/2010 al 15/1/2011
Segnalato da
17/11/2010
Helen Brown
Nitra Gallery - Youth Gallery, Nitra
Focusing on a multi-layered sound installation, the exhibition consists of a series of interrelated elements, each of which has the capacity to both inform and confuse. In the main gallery space, Brown presents a series of print works on paper. Curated by Viviana Checchia.
Curator: Viviana Checchia
Throughout the Nitranska Galeria’s Youth Gallery stairwell space visitors will hear a series of voices in English. Deliberately ambiguous and difficult to decipher on first listen, with repeated listening the monologues give clues as to their meaning and origins. As the visitor ascends or descends the stairwell, other voices come into play, creating a layering effect that further confuses the ear. Visitors are also invited to wander the space accompanied by a museum or gallery style audio guide device, on which are recordings of yet more voices – this time being spoken in Slovak. As the viewer listens to these two languages overlapping and talking over one another, moments of dialogue and parallels emerge from the cacophony, only to blur again as the visitor or the recordings move on.
In the main gallery space, Brown presents a series of print works on paper. Initially, like the sounds in the stairway, they at first appear vague; on closer inspection texts emerge, partially obscured, revealed in negative with faintly translucent background colours, through which yet more forms and imagery appear.
The origins of Brown’s project are visitor reactions to artworks shown during a number of exhibitions at the Eastside Projects, an artist-led gallery in Birmingham (UK). The artist recorded and edited these conversations then invited Slovakian English speakers to interpret them, but without giving them any further clues or imagery of the artworks being discussed. Presenting these recordings together using devices familiar to the gallery-going public, Brown playfully encourages us to create our own idea of the works described, whilst also confusing our understanding of what we can hear.
Helen Brown (Born 1983, Buckinghamshire, UK) lives and works in Birmingham (UK) where she is a director and founding member of artist-run gallery and studio complex Grand Union. Recent exhibitions include Close Encounters, New Generation Arts Festival, Birmingham (2008); 24hr Art, Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin, Australia; SALE, The Royal Standard, Liverpool (2009); Trace, The Bluecoat, Liverpool and Meanwhile in Birmingham, Rogue Studios, Manchester (2010). She is currently developing works for an exhibition at Eastside Projects, Birmingham (UK) that will take place in early 2011.
The opening of the exhibition: Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 5 p.m.
Galéria mladých, Nitrianska galéria, Župné námestie 3, 949 01 Nitra, Slovakia
Open daily except Monday from 10am until 6pm.
Adults 0.35 EUR
Children, students, seniors Admission free
Group rate (groups of 5 and over) 0.20 EUR per head