Seven
October 2 - November 15
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The gallery Elisa Platteau is pleased to announce the show ‘Seven’ by the 7 artists: Danai Anesiadou, Neal Beggs, Thorsten Brinkmann, Jeffrey Clancy, Daniel Eatock, Richard T. Walker et Freek Wambacq for the opening of the gallery.
DANAI ANESIADOU
Born in Germany, raised in Greece, moved to Belgium, trained as a costume designer, and now, finally, working as an artist in the expanded field of performance: it should come as no surprise that the mercurial biographical trajectory of Danai Anesiadou (b. 1973) has produced an artistic practice of matching convolution, confusion even. Tapping from a wide variety of sources in the adjoining realms of leftfield popular (‘low’) culture and the canonical forms of ‘high’ culture, the art of Anesiadou – and an ever-changing cast of collaborators and travelling companions, many of whom will feature prominently in this fall’s Isomosis: Danai Invites Her Talented Friends festival at Etablissement d'en face – is perhaps best appreciated and enjoyed against the referential backdrop of avant-garde cinema and the envelope-pushing, genre- bending, mould-breaking film art of such maverick auteurs as John Cassavetes, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Alain Resnais. In A Night of Psychomagia, which premiered at the Berlin Biennial earlier this year, she convincingly married a strong sense for the theatre of autobiographical confession with a long-standing interest in the netherworld of magical practices and its secret knowledges: partly inspired by her encounter with the aging tarot master Jodorowsky, Anesiadou’s “night of psychomagia” also offered the audience an uncomfortable (and at times uncomfortably hilarious) insight into the neurotic mess of her stage character’s family history and private life. Compared to the ruthless, gut-wrenching exhibitionism of that performance, Anesiadou’s film X, A & M, made in collaboration with Brussels-based artist Sophie Nys, may seem positively icy and tame, academic even – an impression made even more inescapable once it becomes clear that their project is based on a shared enthusiasm for Alain Resnais’ elegiac, elusive Nouvelle Vague classic L’Année dernière à Marienbad from 1960. Parts of X, A & M were shot at Nymphenburg Palace in Bavaria, the lavish original site of Resnais’ detached character study (itself set in the present-day Czech spa town of Mariánské Lázne or Marienbad); yet there also appear scenes set in a dentist’s cabinet, as well as in the bizarre timewarp that is the Paul Delvaux museum in St. Idesbald – the source of yet more subdued Surrealist stoicism. Periodically enacting parts of the original, Robbe-Grillet-penned dialogue (here heard in voice-over) of L’Année dernière à Marienbad, Anesiadou appears – alongside a stone-faced, lugubrious-looking Diederik Peeters – as a mysterious, world-weary young woman locked inside the desolate dreamworld of Central European, aristocratic sanatorium culture, the imagined decadent backdrop of some of her earlier work, likewise engaged in a scenography of mood rather than straightforward narration.
Danai Anesiadou’s X, A & M is shown here for the first time, in the architectural equivalent of the artist’s elusive, perennially inconclusive fantasy: in a private ‘cinema’ underneath the staircase, made to measure her restless exploration of what constitutes her, their, our ‘subconscious’.
NEAL BEGGS
Much of Neal Beggs’s (b.1959, Ireland) work is attached to a specific form of adventure: rock-climbing. A former mountaineer, he has turned this experience into a lifestyle, an attitude that he restores in his work by seeking to invalidate the boundary between art and life. His pieces, often ‘participatory’ for the public, borrow their formal vocabulary from that sport (climbing walls, hand holds, etc.). But the analogy is taken further beyond just these literal plastic qualities, as the artist adapts the principle of his sporting practice to the process of artistic creation.
The wall drawing ‘If Muhammad’ is a work that for Beggs is a result of a culmination of several weeks of thought around the idea of the saying "If the mountain will not come to Muhammad, Muhammad will go to the mountain". “For the viewer it can mean anything from the name of a rock/pop band to a Islamic jihad slogan. It’s a map of a mountain called ‘If Muhammad’ constructed around the concept of its own name/language, a metaphor over lapping its form, its psychedelic/glam/conceptualism, its high and low...it’s good looking and ambiguous. The work also refers to Francis Alys's work entitled 'When faith moves mountains".(May 2008, letter from Neal Beggs)
‘Tent on a ledge’ dates from 1997 while Beggs was still a student. Like many of his works of this period Tent on a Ledge was the result of a moment and this particular moment lay two hours before the opening of his small solo show at Glasgow School of Art. Beggs had everything ready except for one wall that lay empty and he could think of nothing to place on it.
In one of those puzzling moments of clarity the idea of a small balsa wood structure with a tent balanced on it came to mind, and two hours later after some frantic work the idea had come to life in the form of Tent on a ledge and was fixed to the empty wall with two strands of Scotch-tape. Fortunately the Scotch-tape and the idea stuck! and with only a few miner refinements over the past ten years the work has remained true to its original form; being made of Balsawood, glue, and a small square of red canvas, all held to the gallery wall by two lengths of Scotch-tape.
Tent on a ledge is a literal mix of metaphor and form borrowing heavily from constructivist ideas, so much so that (as a joke) the work at first carried the subtitle “Malavich gives up painting and goes climbing”, which in retrospect has held true, as at the time without knowing it Beggs was indeed leaving painting and moving toward making works that more directly referenced climbing. Tent on a ledge, marked the beginning of this movement and represents what is inevitable both in climbing and in life; the fall. The Scotch-tape is sufficient to hold the work securely to the wall for a time, but eventually gravity will win and the work will fall. If one wants to prevent the work from falling one must remain attentive.
THORSTEN BRINKMANN
In his fantastical oeuvre, the German artist Thorsten Brinkmann moves between painting, photography, sculpture, readymade, collage and performance. Thorsten Brinkmann (b. 1971, Herne) is an active collector. In Hamburg, his place of residence, he has a huge shed filled with found objects. Everything that can be found at a flea market will be found in Thorsten Brinkmann’s collection: ruined wardrobes, lampshades, side tables, clothing and more. From this collection he freely draws-out items for use in his installations, sculptures, videos and photos. Hereby Brinkmann subtly indicates to us the shallow and nonchalant manner in which we, in our society, deal with objects.
In the series 'Portraits of a Serialsammler' Thorsten Brinkmann disguises himself in a different way each time. One time he puts second-hand clothes over his head. Another time he hides his face in a lampshade or a flowerpot. Using the junk from his collection Brinkmann moulds his own body into a new representation of himself each time. With these photographed sculptures Thorsten Brinkmann gives new meaning to the traditional understanding of painting and sculpture.
Thorsten Brinkmann refers to art history with pleasure. His photographic self-portraits are reminiscent of Cindy Sherman’s self- staging and call to mind the use of junk in installations by the New Realists, such as Arman and Jean Tingueley. With each of his works Thorsten Brinkmann seems to ask the same question: how does the present get on with the past, or how can genres be redefined. His oeuvre is to be considered as an adventurous search for the cohesion of genres, objects and eras.
JEFFREY CLANCY
The American artist Jeffrey Clancy (b. 1976, Pennsylvania) currently lives and works in Portland, Maine (USA), where he is a professor at the Maine College of Art. He studied ‘Metal and Design’ at Buckinghamshire University in High Wycombe (UK), ‘Fine Metal studies’ at the Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, and ‘Metalsmithing and Jewelry’ at San Diego University in California, receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree in 2005.
Art object or Object art are terminologies whose arrangement lies in the discussion on the art-craft industry, or arts-and-crafts. Jeffrey Clancy, a Metalsmith by training, is loyal to his medium but not averse to the questions being presented in this debate. And in this debate – in which he is also the central figure and is thereby confronted – Jeffrey finds parallels with connotations, societal structures, standards and norms that became imposed through the course of history.
In his career Jeffrey, as reflected in an extensive CV, has built up a skill that can best be defined as ease and loyalty with respect to his material, his medium. His involvement in the debate, his knowledge and handcrafting skills, have thus put him in a position in which he is able to question his own medium. In so doing he creates objects that leave the observer in doubt, and he poses questions that allow the diverse pros and cons in the art-craft debate to be brought into circulation.
DANIEL EATOCK
The English artist and designer Daniel Eatock (b. 1975) studied at London’s Royal College of Art. He worked as a designer at the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, Minnesota) after which he returned to England to undertake contracts with Channel 4 television and the Serpentine Gallery, amongst others. The pictorial and linguistic techniques, the norms and procedures belonging to the milieu of graphic design, thus form a habitat in which his work can unfold. In contrast to his colleagues, Daniel allows new images to emerge by shifting their context or linguistic definition. Their new context is a new form of observation, of perception.
We have seen man produce fire using stones, build pyramids with manpower and run crusades with conviction. Documentaries – for the general public – are more and more often furnished with actors and décors belonging to the context they are illuminating. Whenever that context approaches and overlaps the period of the film medium, it forces a critical attitude. Through the implementation of computers a (virtual) reality is created which has never been, or never as such. With the likes of YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and other networks, these sorts of new images are quickly going to lead a life of their own.
The portraits of Churchill and Hitler came into existence with the launch of Discovery Channel’s (UK) programme ‘Virtual History’. Daniel considered these images as publicity and put his finger in the wound in relation to digital image manipulation. These portraits point to a possible confusion in the perception of history. Hitler and Churchill are only represented as full-fledged mannequins years after their deaths. Although confronted at first sight both portraits are clear in their depiction. This new appearance of two historic, influential individuals, and their perfected execution creates, however, a new ethical approach regarding an advance in the use of digital media.
RICHARD T.WALKER
The English artist Richard Turner Walker (b. 1977 uk) lives and works at the moment in San Francisco, USA. He earned his MA from Goldsmiths college, London.
“Richard T. Walker’s films are about solitude. They are moments in conversations, moments in dialogues, moments when people contemplate and come to terms with, or start to understand, a certain situation or a relationship. Walker’s work is a constant enquiry into the disparity between our thoughts of ‘somewhere’ and what actually happens ‘somewhere’. In their transient nature, the films almost become behavioral studies of the act of experiencing. Experiences are redefined and reinvented by the artist as he speaks, continuously changing, shifting, turning, and eventually becoming timeless. We are reminded that personal conflicts and dilemmas are eternal, and will remain the same in the way they look, but not in the way they are lived.” – For Don Quiote, Witte de With, Rotterdam Holland. 2006
“In Successive Inconceivable Events, Richard Turner Walker attempts to record a direct dialogue with nature. At first, we see a panorama of landscapes, forests and mountains that radiate seclusion and serenity, but are not without a certain coolness, giving the video the impression of a painting. Then the artist himself appears amidst the scenery. He places a CD player on a tree stump from which issue the gentle sounds of an acoustic guitar. The performer sits down in the landscape – his back turned to the viewer – and begins, as soon as the music stops, to carry out an intimate conversation with nature. He articulates his feelings when faced with the unapproachable distance of the nature around him and its lack of acknowledgement for his own presence. While nature encounters him with overwhelming beauty, this is coupled with a raw frigidity. He senses not only a dearth of warmth and comfort, but ultimately also the absence of any kind of connection at all. He admires nature as if she were a far-away loved one, but at the same time feels isolated, even alienated. Richard Turner Walker’s work takes up the long tradition of nature dialogue, reflecting on the impossibility of man truly knowing nature as she always eludes his grasp.” - For Videonalle in Bonn Germany. 2007
His work has been presented in numerous exhibitions, screenings and performances Europe, Japan, China and the USA. He is the recipient of a Fellowship from Kala Art Institute in Berkeley California and is currently an affiliate artist at Headlands Center for Arts in Sausalito California.
FREEK WAMBACQ
(b. 1978)
In its old sense the verb ‘bricoler’ applied to ball games and billiards, to hunting, shooting and riding. It was however always used with reference to some extraneous movement: a ball rebounding, a dog straying or a horse swerving from its direct course to avoid an obstacle. And in our own time the ‘bricoleur’ is still someone who works with his hands and uses devious means compared to those of a craftsman.
~ Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind
Freek Wambacq’s oeuvre investigates the uncertain intersection between sculpture and architecture with the devious ingenuity of a bricoleur, diverting the everyday furniture of the world for new and unlikely ends. In the tradition of Arte Povera, the artist makes use of readily available materials, bric-a-brac, remainders and leftovers found in his studio and elsewhere. His installations draw on DIY techniques and the aesthetics of old consumer catalogues and flea market displays (including that digital flea market Ebay), and frequently find inspiration in chance encounters and discoveries. Lying behind Wambacq’s multiform objects are different stories or subtle sociological commentaries, which add another dimension to their intrinsic aesthetic quality.
The artist’s sculptural technique is exemplified by his Rack series (2002 – present), constructions in which pool cues, plastic tubes, ceramic pipes, wooden frames, wire, glass plates, and other sundry materials are carefully arranged in appealing, even elegant, forms. Racks, stacks and piles are Wambacq’s preferred sculptural vocabulary—that is, collections of things whose individual placement is fundamentally unimportant or indifferent, like the stacks of construction materials one can find in hardware stores. While maintaining a reference to this pure functionality and aesthetic indifference, the artist’s “rack” is no longer arbitrarily arranged but ordered by a distinct creative sensibility. The Racks might best be described as ‘paradox objects’. They retain a certain haphazard, improvised appearance while at the same time being precisely planned and composed—contingency and necessity combined. In Rack IV (2005), square PVC beams are arranged in a twisting criss-cross pattern, which connotes a sense of movement and gives the structure a slightly unbalanced, precarious feel. A few strategically placed ceramic bowls provide the installation with points of gravitation, while alluding to the layout of Shaker farms where bowls of fermenting milk are placed at the junctures of barn rafters.