calendario eventi  :: 

X

13/1/2011

Four exhibitions

AA Gallery, London

Translated By

Douglas Coupland, Rana Dasgupta, Julian Gracq, Hu Fang, Jonathan Lethem, Guy Mannes-Abbott, Sophia Al Maria, Hisham Matar, Tom McCarthy, Adania Shibli, and Neal Stephenson

Curated by Charles Arsène-Henry & Shumon Basar

You want to listen first and see second. So you enter the room. It looks empty, silent.

Someone in their early twenties hands you a pamphlet and a pair of studio-styled headphones attached to a small electronic device. They tell you, 'Press one to eleven' and point to something that resembles an album track-listing, except. There are writers' names instead of bands. Locations instead of songs. Strange?

You recognize some of the authors. You enjoy familiarity but crave the unknown. The kid resumes instructing. 'See the numbered images on the wall? They go with the audio.' What's the relationship between the sound and the image? Kid says, 'Translation.'

You strap on the headphones. You pick a random number and press play. You look for the same number on the wall. An image is close by. Next to it, beat up office chairs dragged from the street. A voice arises in your ears. You sit on the chair. You listen closely. Crackles, hiss. And you're on Atlantic Avenue, between Nevins and Third. It's Brooklyn. 1971.

Time passes, the voice disappears. You wonder where you'll end up next. Another track, another seat, a different voice. You're somewhere else.

Perched on a little stool you hear a six year old girl's voice. You're suddenly lost in the Sheraton Hotel in the late 80s. An Aztec mothership in Doha's desert.

You realise you've entered a mixtape of space and time that's 11 tracks long. A compilation of places, that's you. Tripoli, Ramallah, Les Ardennes. Years pass. Sofia, Brixton. Qalandia Checkpoint. Here's The Metaverse. A garden in Suzhou. Few minutes more. Until West Vancouver. Where the world is ending.

An accompanying paperback, published by Bedford Press and designed by Z.A.K., will include all the stories as well as essays by the curators. It will be launched during an event that speculates about the future(s) of writing, reading, listening and fiction.

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True Cities
Front Members' Room

True Cities is a collection of photographs featuring four global cities that determine, in different ways, our political and cultural landscapes and which will increasingly shape our collective destinies in the future. Within the single space of 'True Cities' Charlie Koolhaas weaves a photographic patchwork of urban fabrics from Guangzhou, Dubai, Lagos, and London, creating a multi-layered picture of an intricately connected world.

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Dolor

Richard Galloway makes large linocuts featuring meticulous depictions of London's East End, using a rich vocabulary of motifs, patterns and mark marking developed over the last ten years. The starting point for Galloway's dark narratives is the world around him. He's right there in the middle of the action, at the local barber's boozer or in the betting shop, or rising pre-dawn to accompany dustmen on their morning rounds.

Dolor showcases Richard Galloway's new, eponymously titled linocut. Marking a shift in Galloway's work, Dolor, conjures up an entirely imagined allegoric snapshot with the vantage point now 'zoomed out'; a fictitious sin-city thriving on ideas of social change, conflict, faith and struggle, while satirical observations celebrate all that is ludicrous and enchanting about English life and society.

These are images that reward a closer look; layer upon layer of beautifully rendered detail make Galloway's linocuts not only a modern day Grammar of Ornament, but also a morality play, peopled by sinners and saints. Galloway's work is always humorous, dark and lovingly rendered. Your close attention will be rewarded.

Dolor will be accompanied by two previous works, Stringarms and Mariella.

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Becoming Fiction – Self Portrait as a Film-still
Back Members’ Room

Each image depicts a moment that has personal resonance: autobiographical, aspirational, appropriated or fantastical. We construct self-image from our background; the context, behaviour, rhythms, hopes, desires, inhibitions and ambitions of those with whom we grew up. Our understanding of the ‘truth’, our memory, describes an individual understanding of events, a personal edit of a narrative.

Contact details
Head of Exhibitions:
Vanessa Norwood
T: +44 (0)20 7887 4031
vanessa@aaschool.ac.uk

Private view 14 January, 6.30–8.30

AA Gallery
Architectural Association
36 Bedford Square London
Opening times: Monday to Friday 10.00am – 7.00pm; Saturday 10.00am – 3.00pm
Entrance is FREE

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