Two emerging artists, who offer medium-reflexive approaches for producing artworks in order to scrutinise various systems of contemporary cultural representation. The exhibition will look predominantly at their compelling use of video, it will include new works by both artists which interrogate personal and wider public representations and personas.
Represent brings together two emerging artists, David
Blandy and Saskia Holmkvist, who offer medium-reflexive approaches for producing
artworks in order to scrutinise various systems of contemporary cultural
representation. The exhibition will look predominantly at their compelling use of
video as a means to investigate the mechanisms through which knowledge-production
and cultural identities are formed. Represent will be a unique and exciting play-off
between Blandy’s and Holmkvist’s individual projects. It will include new works by
both artists which interrogate personal and wider public representations and
personas.
Blandy’s works document performative acts, often in which the artist is
seen clearly miming to film scenes or pop records. Blandy carefully selects songs
and scenes for their inherent cultural stereotypes, whether race or class
orientated, which he then unravels to highlight the extent to which our sense of
self may be formed through the mass media. Holmkvist’s works investigate the
authenticity of sources of knowledge-production, such as the medium of documentary
reportage, in order to reveal how such an authoritative means for common
understanding can be manipulated. Holmkvist also analyses the means used by visual
arts institutions for marketing and PR, to research the strategies underlying their
public identities.
Both artists will be including new works
for presentation. Blandy will be presenting the next chapter of his Barefoot Lone
Pilgrim series of videos, following the saga of the eponymous protagonist. Played by
Blandy himself, this solitary character travels through a mythical landscape of
nostalgic audio and visual excerpts, including Asian martial arts television and
cinema imagery.
Part of Saskia Holmkvist’s artistic project is working with a PR
agency to develop a marketing and PR strategy for Gasworks. Parts of that process
will be presented within the Represent exhibition. Holmkvist will also further
develop a project in which she interviews the curators and collaborators of the
institutions in which she exhibits, to investigate their strategies for branding and
marketing to a wider public.
Usually based in Stockholm, Holmkvist is
participating in a residency at Gasworks from January to March.
David Blandy’s recent group exhibitions
include Projekt Migration, Kolnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, 2005; The Mind is a
Horse (Part II), Bloomberg Space, London; New Contemporaries 2004, Barbican, London,
2004; and Ethnic Marketing, Centre d’art Contemporain, Geneva, 2004.
Saskia Holmkvist recently had a solo presentation of her works at IASPIS,
Stockholm, and has participated in the exhibitions Narrow focus, Tranzit workshop,
Bratislava, 2005; and Greyscale/CMYK, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 2003.
Holmkvist has work in the collection of the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and has been
selected for their upcoming major exhibition Modernautstallningen 2006 (Moderna
Exhibition 2006).
Opening: Friday 31nd March 2006
Gasworks Gallery
155 Vauxhall Street - London