Art & Language
dal 16/9/2009 al 3/11/2009
Segnalato da
16/9/2009
Art & Language
Distrito 4 (New Space), Madrid
Recent Work. A&L's work features among the most distinctive and involved visual research in conceptual art created since the 60s, and it has never stopped, even nowadays, exploring the discursive capacity of art pieces as elements of confrontation and analysis of art in our present context.
In 1968, Michael Baldwin first used the term Art & Language to name the conceptual art group now made up of Baldwin himself and Mel Ramsden. After their participation in quite a number of Kassel Documenta Exhibitions, in 1993 the centre Jeu de Paume in Paris organised their first retrospective exhibition, which afterwards was followed by shows in such momentous venues for the contemporary scene as New York’s P.S.1 (1999) and the Musée D’Art Moderne in Lille (2002).
A&L’s work features among the most distinctive and involved visual research in conceptual art created since the 60s, and it has never stopped, even nowadays, exploring the discursive capacity of art pieces as elements of confrontation and analysis of art in our present context. Theoretician Charles Harrison has accompanied A&L with terse and provocative lines of reasoning and criticism about their work. His texts are among the most moving written evidence of an artistic movement that has persisted in its original premises and has evolved at a lively pace.
A&L is based in the United Kingdom, and its work has been characterized since the 60s by a critical and subversive attitude towards all aspects related to the creation of works of art, producing many performances and paintings in its early stages. Its latest production is shown by Distrito 4 Gallery, in which a selection of representative works from this year will be displayed from 17 September to 4 November under the name of Recent Work. Remarkable is the series comprised of nine pieces, with such meaningful titles as “An Incident of Pessimistic Enthusiasm” or “Songs Held in Official Hope”. In all of them, an individual panel appears with a chair upholstered in a geometrical pattern placed in front, each differently angled, and with printed texts, etc. A&L has used chairs in its work since 1996, varying their composition and scenery. Here, the seat materials come from a 2005 piece made up of glass tables that was dismantled last spring and reconstructed into the current exhibition.
The installations and furniture are altered with an utterly plastic and analytical exactness, and are accompanied by a text from the above-mentioned Harrison, who describes the outcome of this new work: “The effect of these works is to conjure up a group of phantasmal devotees all locked together in communion with an exasperating haute culture.” Regarding the relationships among the different elements displayed, Harrison sums it up: “The panel-and-chair pattern in the seven works completed so far might prove enough to form a linguistic set that reminds one of an ongoing novel – maybe a new genre. However, what I most need to share is the varied range and scope of the characteristic effects of each, the alluring questions posed by the attempt to distinguish among them, and the inherent motivation in trying to establish the conditions for their relative success or failure. They play with new practical variants on the complex relations between text and image, between the virtuality of painting and the supposed literalism of the object placed on the floor, and fascinating arguments spring from them concerning the diverse and significant relations that can exist among actual and imagined viewers.”
The title of another chair, “Now They Are Again No Secret”, may be useful to define A&L’s involvement with the world of art – by means of the written language, the pieces do not keep any secret whatsoever; by means of the visual language, each of them is hermetically impenetrable. The whole process, from the making of the paintings and the early stages of the idea up to the final result, is fully expounded in the writings, as if Harrison was filming the development of the work of art from the inside – from the minds of its creators.
Image: Songs held in offices, I, (10), 2006. Cotton fabric and mixed media 20,3 x 118,8 x 7,1 cm. (detail)
Distrito4
Conde de Aranda, 4 - E-28001 Madrid
Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 10.30 am to 2 pm and from 5 pm to 8:30 pm Saturday from 10.30 am to 2 pm.
Free admission