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16/9/2014

Gerard Byrne

Lisson Gallery Milan, Milano

An ongoing practice of time-shifting photographs, depicting recent but dated displays of magazines and newspapers, forms the centre of an exhibition of new work by Gerard Byrne, his first solo show in Italy since he represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2007. Each of these news kiosks, of the sort typically found in city centres and shopping precincts all over the world, has been captured by Byrne’s lens over the past half decade or so, freezing the social, political and cultural contexts relevant to each particular time and place – perhaps revealing the salient headlines of the day or even which cars, celebrities, musicians and sportspeople were popular at that specific moment. Collectively grouped under the heading Newsstands, each unique black-and-white print, made from a single negative – whether photographed in Mexico City, Paris or Brussels, and especially for this exhibition in Milan – has its own constantly morphing title, reflecting in prose the time past from when the photograph was taken: Ten months, three weeks and one day ago, for example.

Downstairs, a new video work further explores Byrne’s already deep engagement with Irish author Samuel Beckett’s En Attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot), previously the subject of a series of sculptures and photographs by the artist, based on the playwright’s minimal stage designs and directions. Byrne’s new film, Voice documents a recent rehearsal of the famous avant-garde play in its original French with an additional voiceover. The narrator is a child who struggles to decipher the play and in turn the audience is invited to piece together the different points of view – the child’s voice, the film of the play, the viewer – in order to understand complete the material Byrne presents. Rather then critique the history of the play, Voice constructs a speculative, generative space, wherein the very boundaries of adulthood, childhood, embodiment, and translation are temporarily revised.

A new sculptural unit, inspired by a combination of early Robert Smithson sculptures, Donald Judd works and Paul Kjaerholm table designs, serves to house an aggregation of imagery, collage-like in spirit, acting as a time capsule of the artist’s different projects, thoughts and lines of enquiry. As a cross-section of Byrne’s abiding interests and current practice, this exhibition combines work that variously rehearses and revises historical ‘coordinates’, through reference to canonical theatre (Beckett) and to the quotidian realities of the newsstand, either re-read as a sort of ‘flash-back’ (the photograph), or through a lyrical combination of images combined in a vitrine.

Visually rich and intellectually complex, the work of Gerard Byrne in photography, film, theatre and multi-screen installation examines the slippage between time and the act of image creation. Characterised by a laconic humour, Byrne’s projects examine the ambiguities of language and of what is gained or lost in the translation from text to image. By reconstructing historically charged conversations, interviews and performances, from sources as diverse as La Revolution Surréaliste or Playboy and National Geographic magazines, Byrne tests our perception of the past and the present, and the inherent challenges of the visual record. Ongoing photographic series, such as In the News and Loch Ness, demonstrate that while images are fixed in time they are also interpreted in flux – a situation that both creates and distorts our knowledge of what came before. Byrne is precise in his research and analysis of the relationship between time, documentation and an identifiable visual language, and while each of his distinct bodies of work is conceived independently, they resonate together as being made in relation to a specific, but malleable historical referent.

Gerard Byrne was born in 1969 in Dublin, Ireland, where he lives and works. Selected solo exhibitions include: The Whitechapel Gallery, London (2013); Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2012); IMMA, Dublin (2011); Milton Keynes Gallery (2011); The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2011); Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland (2010); The Common Guild, Glasgow (2010); Lisson Gallery, London (2009); ICA Boston (2008); Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (2008); Dusseldorf Kunstverein (2007); Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (2007); MUMOK, Vienna (2006); BAK, Utrecht (2004); Frankfurter Kunstverein (2003). In 2007 he represented Ireland at the 52nd Venice Biennale. He has also participated in dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel, 2012; Performa, New York (2011); the 54th Venice Biennale (2011); Auckland Biennial (2010); Gwangju Biennial (2008); Sydney Biennial (2008); Lyon Biennial (2007); Tate Triennial (2006); and the Istanbul Biennale (2003).

For press information:
Italy Paola C Manfredi Studio +39 02 87 23 80, press@paolamanfredi.com
UK, rest of Europe Gair Burton at Rhiannon Pickles PR +44 (0)7402 784 470, gair@picklespr.com

Opening 17 September 2014, 7-9 pm

Lisson Gallery
via Zenale, 3 Milano
Opening Times:
Mon-Fri 10am-6pm (closed 1-3pm) Sat by appointment

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