Dan Graham is one of the heroic artists from the late 1960s who first began to investigate the relationship between architectural environments and those who inhabit them. His very personal and intuitive exploration of architectural space and perception is defined by his glass structures or pavilions, models, photographs and video works.
Lisson Gallery is pleased to announce the sixth solo exhibition of Dan Graham in London since his first show in 1972. Dan Graham is one of the heroic artists from the late 1960s who first began to investigate the relationship between architectural environments and those who inhabit them. His very personal and intuitive exploration of architectural space and perception is defined by his glass structures or pavilions, models, photographs and video works.
Graham's work has always involved the voyeuristic act of seeing
oneself reflected at the same time as watching others, and an
awareness of this dual perception amidst a constantly changing
natural landscape. Dan Graham has described the broad practice
of his work as "geometric forms inhabited and activated by the
presence of the viewer, [producing] a sense of uneasiness and
psychological alienation through a constant play between feelings
of inclusion and exclusion."
In his own words, Dan Graham has described his "proposed
pavilions in two way mirror glass and conventional transparent
glass as mimicking the condition of architecture in the city from
which suburban arcadia sees itself in a dialectical and utopian
retreat. They simultaneously evoke the historical precedent of
garden pavilion forms from the Renaissance and Rococo fabriqués
in Western garden art to the Chinese garden pavilions, which used
circular open portals and windows."
The exhibition will include two of these full scale outdoor pavilions,
Triangular Pavilion with Circular Cut Outs and the Greek Cross both
of which encourage active participation. Viewers are expected to
walk in and out of the pavilions observing both themselves and the
reflections around them. The Greek Cross will be a six by eight
metre labyrinthine structure composed of wooden shoji screens
and large two way mirror reflective glass walls.
Among the four models that will be shown are Swimming Pool / Fish
Pond, a project in which a swimming pool and an aquarium would
occupy adjacent spaces; and Portal which was proposed as a
portal for a late 1990s airport hotel. The sides are curved two way
mirror glass that is concave on the inside. Potential spectators
passing through the pavilion would see enlarged views of their own
bodies as well as reflected views of the skyscape and the
surrounding city.
Also included in the exhibition will be the Lisa Bruce Boutique
Design of 1997, a recent development in which Dan Graham has
been testing his approach with functional store front shop design.
The exhibition will have a dedicated video screening area
presenting a selection of video performances and tapes as well as
a daily screening at noon of Rock My Religion. This seminal film
charts the history of Rock and Roll music from its origins in the
'reeling and rocking' and 'speaking in tongues' of the early American
Shaker communities to rock music's promotion of sexual freedom
in the 1950s and 60s which was based on the futility of deferred
pleasure and a disavowal of the regime of work and technology
produced by the threat of the nuclear bomb.
Dan Graham lives and works in New York City. His recent
retrospective opened in January at Museu de Arte Contemporânea
de Serralves, Porto and it will travel to Musée d'Art Moderne de la
Ville de Paris; Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; Kiasma Museum of
Contemporary Art, Helsinki.
The gallery is open Monday to Friday 10-6, and Saturday 10-5.