29/10/2008
Giles Round
Four, Dublin
Xlomfcnhngncinudcwgenmmnch
Curated by Georgina Jackson
Four is delighted to present an exhibition of new work by British artist Giles Round entitled Xlomfcnhngncinudcwgenmmnch.
Round employs the language of modernism in its multitude of forms & histories, to create works which assert themselves into our present. Combining formal sculptures, lights, monochromatic planes, text & wall paintings, installations become stage sets into which formal relationships between constituent parts alludes to the potentiality of narratives & unspecified histories.
In Xlomfcnhngncinudcwgenmmnch Round, referencing conflating histories of modernism & minimalism, alludes to the complexity of formalism & of 'language' itself, in which statements can become utterances open to interpretation, misinterpretation or at times incomprehensible. As Mel Bochner wrote in 1970 'Language is not transparent'. Elements of formalism, coding & subjectivity represent the complexities of 'language' & allude to the interplay between formalism, perception & interstices that can occur. A large wall painting Pictures emerged from letters (2008) appears as pulsating patterns in which form & language interplay to reveal themselves fleetingly, forms revealing themselves as letters become abstracted to reveal patterns, while patterns emerge to form pictures. Language fleetingly reveals itself within form. There is also an allusion to the indecipherable, to language that cannot be understood, that appears as pattern rather than language, almost approaching the decorative. These in-between spaces exist & hint at other or alternative histories & spaces where the present plays out.
A sculptural work recalls the form of the daybed, an opulent almost redundant remnant of the past or perhaps a prototype for the future, in which there are spaces for neither work nor leisure but for contemplation. The hierarchies between form & function, inside & outside, collapse as intervals emerge, modular forms appear sculptural, functional & yet function-less. Design, formalisms, histories of modernism & minimalism, exist & co-exist both within the gallery space but allude to these elements outside that are unframed.
Eschewing conceptions of the universal, Round employs vernacular elements from the designs of Ernö Goldfinger to Japanese wall hangings, in layers of cultural reference to create works which assert the role of the personal & the experiential within history & the here & now. Specifically designed fonts are meticulously applied to surfaces, in which form becomes language in murmurs or statements which refer to loss & impossibility. & yet there exists an allusion to moments of collectivity within this, inherent within the history of modernism itself, hinting at past & present euphoria & also the loss associated with such moments. Installations become a kind of mise en scène in which audience becomes actor & formal structures have the capacity to be meaningful. Fleeting moments of existence such as joy, hope, isolation, emptiness, possibility, desire & loss play out.
Giles Round (born 1976) lives & works in London. Selected recent exhibitions include: Idealismusstudio, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria; Nought to Sixty, ICA, London; Feeling gave way to structure, The Approach, London, 2008; Process Room, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, White Cubicle, curated by Pablo Leon de le Barra, George & Dragon, London, 2007; Time Just Falls Away- commissioned by V&A, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Life Without Work- Luke Dowd & Giles Round, Whitechapel Project Space, London, Unborrowed from the eye, John Connelly presents, New York (group), 2006.
For further details please contact Lee Welch on +353 (0) 86 365 1256
Opening: Thursday 30 October 2008 6-8 pm
Four
119 Capel St - Dublin