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9/10/2007

Two exhibitions

Gimpel Fils, London

Guy Ben-Ner - Stealing Beauty

In his short films and video works Guy Ben-Ner dissolves the boundaries between his studio practice, his domestic life, and the everyday world. Inspired by the silent films of Buster Keaton, the conceptual work of Bruce Nauman and the classic American sit-com, Ben-Ner has developed his own form of conceptual comedy, which whilst entertaining, also raises provocative questions regarding the nature of family, domesticity, and the varied positive and negative relationships found within the family structure.

Portraying himself, his wife and his two children, Stealing Beauty is reminiscent of a family sit-com, but was shot in various IKEA showrooms located in 3 different countries. The prototype rooms within the Ikea stores provided the film sets of a family house within which the Ben-Ner family attempt to teach their youngest son about the meaning of ownership when he comes home from school with a note indicating he was caught stealing money from a peer. The ensuing film explores the themes of private property, stealing, and the family as an emotional and moral barometer.

Taking Ikea's request that visitors to the store 'feel at home' literally, Ben-Ner and his family occupy the domestic spaces as though they were their own. A model bedroom becomes a private, intimate place when Ben-Ner and his wife are alone in bed, but is immediately transformed into a public space when consumers with Ikea yellow shopping bags enter the frame. Blurring the boundaries of public and private spaces, Stealing Beauty confuses the store's directive to market private spaces within a public environment.

Because Ben-Ner did not ask permission to film in the various Ikea stores, the film was shot in secrecy, silently, like an act of theft. Stealing the spaces of the store, Ben-Ner transforms the public representation of a private space into a private space, thereby challenging not only the store's ownership of the mock rooms, but also the very notion of private property. Every time he was caught and asked to leave, Ben-Ner had to find a different branch of the store to continue filming. Being caught, whilst usually the desired outcome when someone commits a theft, in this instance, disturbs the movie's smooth continuity, as different kitchens or living-rooms were used within a single scene. As a result the film also becomes a visual catalogue of ideal living spaces and explores what 'home' might be like if we subscribed to the marketer's presentation of it.

Guy Ben-Ner was born in Ramat Gan, Israel, and studied at Columbia University, New York. In 2005 he had solo shows at Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; and Postmasters Gallery, New York. That year he also represented Israel at the Venice Biennale, exhibiting the film and sculpture Tree House Kit. Since then he has been the recipient of a DAAD scholarship, enabling him to work and study in Berlin, and he produced new work for the sculpture projects münster 07, curated by Kasper König, Brigitte Franzen and Carina Plath. He recently participated in Tate Modern's Art Summer University programme of talks and screenings of new international video art.

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T. Kelly Mason - 40 steps

For his exhibition Downstairs at Gimpel Fils, T. Kelly Mason has incorporated the physicality of the exhibition space into his installation. Descending the stairs into the lower gallery, we find an architectural structure and video work that explore the idea of stairs as both a metaphor and as a physical reality.

Mason creates what he calls communicative sculptures. These objects encompass a wide range of cultural and perceptual conditions, in order to ask why and how language is organized. The architectural structure creates a series of corridors, directing our movement within the gallery, and which lead to a central chamber containing a video monitor. Shrouded in blankets, the screen combines text, image and sound in order to consider the role of staircases and built spaces within society. As with much of Mason's work, 40 Steps provides a series of impressions and suggests a number of ideas, but does not provide a sense of a fixed resolution. In this way, Mason's work is a distillation of numerous different spaces, thoughts and references about staircases and how they transport us through space, but which pull and shift interpretations in different directions.

"...not long ago I was watching my friend's baby daughter walking up and down stairs repeatedly. This is how we learn to do this kind of activity, through body memory."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHJ37yf9sjI

"I think it's pretty funny."

Hitchcock's The 39 Steps: "a character named Mr. Memory has memorized all of the secrets of a spy ring called the 39 steps. I like that the 39 steps is the macguffin of the film." "how come the best music clubs are downstairs?"

T. Kelly Mason received his training at California State University, Long Beach, and at Art Center College of Design, California. Recent exhibitions include What Goes Up What Goes Down, at Daniel Hug Gallery; HOWL, at Galerie Catherine Bastide; and FestSpiele: Munich Opera Festival, Munich. In 2006 he was included in the Whitney Biennial. His work can be found in numerous public collections including: MOCA, L.A.; The Hammer Museum, LA; New York Public Library, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, N.Y; and Sammlung Schurmann, Aachen. T. Kelly Mason has undertaken residencies at Det Fynske Kunstakademie, Denmark, and received a Fulbright residency for the Study of Architecture and Urban Planning in the Panama Canal Zone Region. This is his first solo exhibition in the UK.

Private view: Friday 12 October, 6-8 pm

Gimpel Fils
30 Davies Street - London
Hours: Mon - Fri 10am - 5.30pm, Sat 11am - 4pm
Free admission

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