25/2/2003
Sarah Beddington
Flat 220, New York
At Flat the artist will be interacting with the domestic interiors of an inhabited apartment. Using a variety of media she will create scenarios in which the outside is brought inside, the dark forest appearing to invade the safety and familiarity of the home.
Double Trouble
Opening Reception: Wednesday February 26th, 7-9pm
Exhibition Dates: February 26th - March 29th, 2003
Opening Hours: Thursday - Sunday 12-6pm and by appointment
FLAT is pleased to present Double Trouble, the first solo exhibition in New York for the British artist Sarah Beddington. It is being held in conjunction with a parallel show in the “house†space of MOCA D.C., Washington D.C.
At FLAT the artist will be interacting with the domestic interiors of an inhabited apartment. Using a variety of media she will create scenarios in which the outside is brought inside, the dark forest appearing to invade the safety and familiarity of the home. The environments in this show will incorporate video, painting and three-dimensional works. They expand on the concerns existing in her paintings: notions of non-linear time and memory, extended moments under artificial lighting, stages set for incidents that may take place or have perhaps already occurred.
Often made in series (“Forty Nights†(2001) was an installation of forty canvases) the paintings are cinematic moments devoid of people. They are based on photographs taken by the artist at night in cities as diverse as Cairo, Paris and New York. Places where she searches for collective images of the strangely familiar amidst that which is not. The banal is elevated to a film noirish level, heightened by the use of dark surface veils of paint which threaten to engulf the image, acting as an obscuring filter as well as producing a strange anamorphic distancing effect. The recent video pieces also oscillate between distance and seduction, stillness and movement. Unstaged moments attain a dream-like quality through their framing, the looped repetition and the expectation of something that might be about to happen. They emphasize the fragmented sense of narrative in “Double Trouble†where there are no beginnings or endings.
The ordinary functions of the rooms at FLAT have been disrupted. Beyond the locked doors of the kitchen lies a woodland Duchampian tableau, only partially visible. The slatted doors act in the same way as the surface veils of paint: covering up what lies beneath as well as encouraging a sense of voyeurism. Darkened interiors set somewhere between waking and sleeping offer glimpses into tantalizing and unexplained scenes which both mesmerize and disturb.
Sarah Beddington is currently based in New York on a residency at ISCP, the International Studio and Curatorial Program. She exhibits with Hales Gallery in London, UK, where she has had two solo shows. She has shown extensively in the UK, Europe and the US. Her work is in a number of public and private collections. Recently The Arts Council of Great Britain purchased a new video work called “Lupitaâ€, which will be shown at MOCA D.C.’s “house†from February 21st through March 15th 2003.
For more information and/or visuals contact Felicity Hogan at 212 421 1589.
Sarah Beddington, 'Double Trouble' also @ MOCA DC - February 21-March 15, 2003
1054 31st Street NW Washington DC 20007 202 342 6230 info@mocadc.org - www.mocadc.org
FLAT 220 - February 26-March 29, 2003
East 60th Street # 6H New York 10022
212 421 1589