Carlos Amorales
dal 28/9/2006 al 18/11/2006
Segnalato da
28/9/2006
Carlos Amorales
MK Gallery, Milton Keynes
Solo show. Amorales makes work in a variety of media, including animation, sculpture, installation and performance, drawing on the rich visual imagery and popular cultural history of his native Mexico to create environments and situations that call upon the audience to participate: physically, mentally, or otherwise.
Solo show
This autumn Milton Keynes Gallery presents a new exhibition by the Mexican artist
Carlos Amorales. Amorales makes work in a variety of media, including animation,
sculpture, installation and performance, drawing on the rich visual imagery and
popular cultural history of his native Mexico to create environments and situations
that call upon the audience to participate: physically, mentally, or otherwise.
Amorales' 'Liquid Archive' will be central to the exhibition at Milton Keynes
Gallery. The archive is an evolving, personal collection of over 400 digital
'drawings' of appropriated images and intimate memories, a series of which will be
on display in the form of wall-based drawings. The ambiguous images range from the
personal to the political, including a favourite childhood toy to a crumpled poster
of Osama bin Laden and have informed much of Amorales' oeuvre, where ravens, skulls,
shattered glass and dark silhouetted figures morph into infinite configurations.
The archive has been transformed numerous times and remains in a constant state of
flux, questioning the notion of originality. Amorales has worked with various
practitioners to create new structures for the work, including a tarot reader,
musicians, and animators, thus reinventing the form that his exhibits take. For MK
G, the audience will be invited to physically engage with the archive, in its
manifestation as a specially devised environment. Taking the spider web, one of the
most prominent motifs from the archive, Amorales will create an installation of
assorted shapes to reference the negative spaces of the web structure - it is at
once an abstract sculpture and a 'stage' awaiting performance. In this respect
Spider Web Negative Stage (2006) brings full circle Amorales' interest in
performance and its relationship to the graphic work he has undertaken over the last
few years. The installation will be complemented by a new, previously unseen
animation.
As part of MK G's Sunday Film Screening, Amorales will show Manimal, 2005, a film
replete in gothic overtones. It shows a sinister pack of wolves that take over a
city's streets and human population, accompanied by a slow, heavy orchestral score
that adds to the imagery's tension. Manimal traces a thematic line evident in much
of Amorales' recent work that investigates fantasy and horror in the contemporary
world through the use of drawing, graphics and animation.
Carlos Amorales (b. Mexico, 1970) currently lives and works in Mexico City. He has
exhibited extensively in Europe and beyond, including exhibitions and performances
at De Appel, Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beunigen, Rotterdam, Tate Modern,
London, SF MOMA, San Francisco, 2nd Berlin Biennial, 2001, and the Walker Art
Centre, Minneapolis. He represented the Netherlands at the 2003 Venice Biennale.
A number of public related events will accompany the exhibition, including a Mexican
night to celebrate the Mexican Day of the Dead, with traditional music, dancing and
story telling.
Related Events
In Conversation Thur 9 Nov | 19.00-20.00 | Free
Tate Curator Catherine Wood discusses Carlos Amorales' performance work with MK G
Director Michael Stanley
Mexican Night Fri 3 Nov | 19.00-23.00 | £5 (£3 concs)
Enjoy a lively and colourful evening of live Mexican music, dancing and Mexican
story telling, all inspired by the traditional 'Day of the Dead' festival. Visit
mk-g.org for updates.
Preview: 29 Sept, 17.30 - 20.00
Milton Keynes Gallery
900 Midsummer Boulevard - Milton Keynes