calendario eventi  :: 

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23/6/2011

Two exhibitions

Cornerhouse, Manchester

Constellations
Kitty Kraus - Takahiro Iwasaki - Katie Paterson - Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Curated by Karen Gaskill and Michelle Kasprzak

Constellations presents a series of artworks that reflect impermanence, ephemerality and movement. Featuring internationally acclaimed artists Kitty Kraus, Takahiro Iwasaki, Katie Paterson and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, each of the artists are interested in ideas of fluidity and flux, creating a shifting landscape that evolves and changes over time. Constellations presents an active exhibition that is never static or fixed in its presentation but continually offers different perspectives of the work on every visit.

The exhibition includes Kitty Kraus' Untitled, a hauntingly beautiful work in which ice, infused with black ink, gradually melts on the gallery floor leaving behind pools of murky liquid that spread in patterns around which viewers must weave their way; and the first UK showing of Katie Paterson's 100 Billion Suns, a special confetti cannon which will be fired once daily, blasting out 3216 tiny pieces of paper, the colours of which correspond to Gamma Ray bursts—the brightest explosions in the universe. Each second-long explosion creates a miniature version of these vast cosmic events. Paterson is also exhibiting her celebrated Earth-Moon-Earth, which involves the transmission of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata to the moon and back.

The sculptural landscapes of Takahiro Iwasaki's work made delicately from cloth, tape and wood, construct the undulating contours of mountain ranges forming and changing over an eternity. The unstable existence of the work means it will settle and shift over the duration of the exhibition, swayed and disturbed by air-flow through the space and the movement of people. Untitled poster stacks by the acclaimed artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres are an endless supply of takeaway posters depicting the sea, inviting the audience to remove the work until nothing is left. Here Gonzalez-Torres uses the sea as a metaphor for transience, time and travel. Water appears throughout all of Gonzalez-Torres' major bodies of work—the image is a reflection not only of the literal, transient nature of travelling from one place to the other, but more importantly captures the essence of a moment.

At the core of the exhibition is the idea of a constellation not as something fixed, but an organic, evolving grouping with chaos and chance at its core.

Constellations runs at Cornerhouse, Manchester from 25 June until 11 September and admission is free.

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Magda Archer: Crazy Mad
Curated by Mike Chavez Dawson

Crazy Mad is a solo painting show by British artist Magda Archer, presenting a cross section of works made from her home studio over the last decade. Inspired by her vast collection of paraphernalia from the 1950s onwards – sweet jars, biscuit tins, toys and other ephemera – her playful yet dark paintings straddle a surreal-pop kitsch sensibility.

For Crazy Mad, alongside her paintings, Archer will install a replica of her studio with all the trimmings, which she describes as ‘a beautiful cosy grotto’. Whilst working alongside her collections of objects, Archer listens to a vast range of music that often seeps into her paintings. And so a specially selected soundtrack will feature her favourite tunes to date in the replica space.

Archer’s method of painting is painstaking – as she says: “I like to concentrate so hard my eyes are watering”. Amongst the acidic sugar coated colour palette of Archer’s paintings there are often distinctive typefaces, reminiscent of sweet wrappers, comics, annuals and B movie posters.

At Cornerhouse, visitors will navigate through Archer’s replica studio to enter the gallery where clusters of her works will be grouped as ‘So many people love you baby’, ‘I don’t like Art-I Love it’, ‘Furry Friends’ ‘Strange Kids’ and ‘ Come to me my Melancholy Baby’. The paintings will be illuminated by an eclectic selection of domestic lamps and lights. Archer’s show will echo a kleptomaniac searching for escapism from the mundane landscape of domesticity through the act of painting and collecting.

Magda Archer trained at Ravensbourne College of Art, Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art before embarking on a series of group exhibitions. In 1996 she produced artwork for The Beatles Anthology in partnership with Peter Quinnell. Since then she was the co-writer and illustrator of the Harry Hill Fun Book. Some of the artwork produced for the fun book appeared in Peter Blake; About Collage at the Liverpool Tate in 2000. She participated in the group shows Kiss of a Lifetime at Vane, Newcastle in 2009 and in London Calling at Idea Generation Gallery, London in 2010. She has written and illustrated a children’s book, Watch Out Arthur! and most recently a book where art meets comedy, What the Stars Buy!

Accompanying events
Katie Paterson's confetti cannon: Firing at 18:00 and 19:30 on the preview night, and at 19:00 on weekdays and 14:00 at weekends during the exhibition.

Talk/ In Conversation: Daniel Herrmann
Sat 25 June 12:00–14:00, FREE, booking recommended

Screening/ A Cosmological Fantasia
Mon 4 July, 18:20

Open reception/ Constellations and Magda Archer: Crazy Mad
Sat 9 Jul, 17:00–19:00, FREE, Drop in

Tour/ Constellations
Thu 8 Sep, 18:00–19:00, FREE, booking recommended

Curator's Tour/ Magda Archer: Crazy Mad
Wed 29 June, 18:00–19:00, FREE, booking recommended

Tour/ Magda Archer: Crazy Mad
Sat 9 July, 15:00–16:00, FREE, booking recommended

Press contact:
Rosie Farrell +44 0161 2287621 press@cornerhouse.org

Preview 24 - 25 June 2011

Cornerhouse
70 Oxford Street Manchester UK, M1 5NH
Galleries open: Mon: Closed
Tue-Sat: 12:00–20:00, Sun: 12:00–18:00
Admission free

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