Cycle 3. Mackie's practice circumvents conceptual strategies and turns towards a meticulous investigation of the world of things and perceived interconnections. Mullican has continuously tracked the constructions of subjective realities by repeatedly transgressing into and testing our relationship with abstract or 'imaginary' realms.
PRAXES Center for Contemporary Art is a not-for-profit venue for
international contemporary art and research in Berlin founded in 2013.
Situated in a two-story 200 m^2 former community building, PRAXES
presents half-year cycles of consecutive exhibition modules,
publications (the Papers), and live activities such as talks,
performances, and film screenings (the Parlors)—all revolving around two
unassociated artistic practices.
Following Cycle 1 (Gerard Byrne | Jutta Koether) in Fall 2013 and Cycle
2 (Judith Hopf | Falke Pisano) in Spring 2014, the third Cycle at PRAXES
is dedicated to the artistic practices of Christina Mackie (London)
and Matt Mullican (Berlin/New York).
Christina Mackie
Testing the capacities of materials such as crystals, clay, garnet sand,
and pigment blocks against forces of compression, gravity, technology,
or sheer empirical observation, Christina Mackie’s over thirty-year-long
practice circumvents conceptual strategies and turns towards a
meticulous investigation of the world of things and perceived
interconnections. Her engagement with processes of dipping, dying,
coating, collecting, and molding probes a multifaceted animation of the
media. Often displayed in itinerant installations, reusing works
repeatedly in new tableaux, Mackie’s œuvre broadens into a continuum
rather than a series of insulated works. A timely setting for her
immersive landscapes of connectivity, the point of departure at PRAXES
will be sculptural sketches for a sequence of color drop filters,
turning the ground floor into a test site to develop recent and upcoming
work.
Born in 1956 in England and raised in Canada before relocating to London
in the 1980s, Christina Mackie has exhibited extensively with recent
solo exhibitions including The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2014),
Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2012), and Chisenhale Gallery,
London (2012). A monograph on her work, supported by the Contemporary
Art Society, UK, will be released in 2015.
Matt Mullican
Articulated in a range of formats from photographs, pencil drawings,
performances, texts, and pictographic charts, Matt Mullican has
continuously tracked the constructions of subjective realities by
repeatedly transgressing into and testing our relationship with abstract
or “imaginary” realms. Given this expansive investigation of the
structures and possibilities of our perception, Mullican’s Cycle at
PRAXES will inhabit two connected chapters. The first will look at
third-person narratives, spanning Mullican’s initial experiments with
photographic portraiture, the first iterations of his stick-figure Glen
from the early 1970s, and on to transcriptions of recent performances
done under hypnosis—a series of repeated, almost musical utterances by
“That Person,” the artist’s alter-ego. The second part will center on a
string of live lectures and performances, turning to Mullican’s current
investigation into the implications of the “you” in his practice—the
strengthened identification with an imaginary character through a
second-person point of view.
Born in 1951 and trained in Los Angeles and New York City, where the
artist still partly resides, Matt Mullican is based in and works from
Berlin, teaching as professor of sculpture at the Art Academy in Hamburg
(HfbK). Mullican recently had solo exhibitions at Museo Tamayo, Mexico
City (2013), Haus der Kunst, Munich (2011), Jan van Eyck Academie,
Maastricht (2010–2011), and Institut d’art contemporain, Villeurbanne
(2010). His work was also included in “The Encyclopedic Palace”
exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia (2013).
News about PRAXES:
A registered not-for-profit institution, PRAXES is supported by national
funding bodies and private patrons. In Spring 2014, PRAXES successfully
raised over 15.000 Euros for Cycle 3 in the first large-scale
crowdfunding campaign by a German art institution. All events,
exhibitions, and online publications are and will continue to be free of
charge.
PRAXES Founders and Directors Rhea Dall and Kristine Siegel have
furthermore been announced as the next Conveners of a component of the
Bergen Assembly in Norway, a triennial art event taking place throughout
2016.
Image: Christina Mackie, Breughel Boots, 1999. Still from video, 3 min.
Press Contact
Denhart v. Harling . segeband.pr . dh@segeband.de
T: +49 179 4963497
Press Preview: Friday, 29 August 2014, 11 am
Grand Opening: Saturday, 30 August 2014, 7 pm
PRAXES Center for Contemporary Art
Alexandrinenstraße 118-121, D-10969 Berlin
Hours: Wednesday – Sunday 1 – 6 pm