Leo Asemota
dal 29/6/2004 al 7/8/2004
Segnalato da
29/6/2004
Leo Asemota
The Fount Gallery, London
In Asemot's work, each form of expression serves to intensify the character or subject of study. The artist says that 'while making and creating works, I like to think I am not simply making art but monuments to life, to being alive'. The works in this exhibition are abstractions in history, culture and identity; these works also begin a cycle of films and photographs featuring the artist.
THE CURE: COMPLETE WORKS
film, photographs, drawings and sculptures
Leo Asemota’s interest is primarily in aesthetics and idioms in art. In
Asemota’s work, each form of expression serves to intensify the character
or subject of study. The artist says that “while making and creating
works, I like to think I am not simply making art but monuments to life,
to being aliveâ€. The works in this exhibition are abstractions in
history, culture and identity; these works also begin a cycle of films and
photographs featuring the artist.
The film CULT MAKING OF THE CURE is a work of many-valued logic. The film
is unyielding in its creative use of the familiar as it takes the viewer
through a charged cycle of emotions which their antonyms would also
describe. THE CURE, inspiration and concluding element in the film is a
one-off photographic print in a dimension of 45¼ x 69 inches (1150 x 1750¼
mm); other photographs in the exhibition are portraits of the four
characters involved with the making of The Cure. The shows’ anchors are
20 Polaroid’s titled FiTH WORK Nọ 22: HE THAT IS I that Asemota made
whilst was in preparation for The Cure. The collections are portraits of
an artist in self examination. The photographs underlying mystery of
identity is also a thesis on life and death, on the imagined and the
visible.
The two sculptures AS YET UNTITLED and SAINT THOMAS are appropriated from
the iconic status they posses. AS YET UNTITLED, made with refined all
purpose sugar is evocative of the famous forecourt of stars’ footprints
and handprints immortalized in cement at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in
Hollywood. SAINT THOMAS is a domesticized model of the infamous Electric
Chair featured in the film Cult: making of The Cure; the accompanying 15
Drawings of electric symbols in the exhibition highlight the controversial
origins of the chair. The two sculpture’s allusion to history is obvious
but Asemota also shows us major components in the engines of our
civilization.
Born in 1967 in Edo, Nigeria, Leo Asemota lives and works in London. His
work has been seen in exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, and in
solo exhibitions at 198 Gallery, and The Fountâ„¢ Gallery. His films have
played in exhibitions and festivals at the ICA, London, Lux Cinema, Curzon
Cinema, and Riverside Studios in London International Festival of Theatre.
Published works include the arts journal Magnet (inIVA), Skeletons of
Fish (The Fountâ„¢ Enterprise) and PERFORMING DIFFERENCE, published later
this year by artsadmin. Leo Asemota’s work is held in private and
corporate collections in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the
United States.
OPENING TIMES
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY 11.30 A.M. - 5.30 P.M.
ALL OTHER TIMES BY APPOINTMENT
THE FOUNTâ„¢ GALLERY
210 HORNSEY ROAD, ISLINGTON
LONDON 7 7LL