Exhibition
Fiona Banner - Frith Street Gallery
Fiona Banner’s practice centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. From her ‘wordscapes’ to her use of found and transformed military aircraft, Banner juxtaposes the brutal and the sensual, performing an almost complete cycle of intimacy, attraction and alienation. In this exhibition the artist looks at how we mythologize history, and our willingness to be seduced by those myths.
The first work in the exhibition Tornado, is a large suspended bell. For Banner bells signify the simplest form of communication – an instrument that requires no music; a language without words, yet with multiple and conflicting meanings. The sculpture is cast from the rendered fuselage of a Tornado jet fighter – one of the most effective military aircraft of the past 30 years and aptly named after a destructive force of nature. Presented un-tuned the bell invites the viewer to physically engage with it; the resulting sound is a direct reflection of its form.
