Artlyst Podcast: Director Paul Hobson Introduces Modern Art Oxford’s 50th Anniversary Celebration

Paul Hobson

Artlyst has attended ‘The Indivisible Present’, the first exhibition in KALEIDOSCOPE, a year long programme of unfolding exhibitions at Modern Art Oxford to celebrate the gallery’s 50th anniversary. This will include prescient iconic works from the past exhibitions at the gallery alongside new commissions by acclaimed contemporary artists.

Image: Douglas Gordon, 24 Hour Psycho (1993), The Indivisible Present Modern Art Oxford. Photo: P A Black © Artlyst 2016.

Director Paul Hobson was kind enough to explain this opening exhibition, an examination of time from an unconventional perspective. The show includes Douglas Gordon, Pierre Huyghe, John Latham, Yoko Ono, Elizabeth Price, Dog Kennel Hill Project and Viola Yeşiltaç; with works encompassing film, photography, sculpture and installation, with varying explorations of how time affects the perception of the viewer.

Works on display in this inaugural exhibition include Turner Prize-winning artist Douglas Gordon’s celebrated film installation 24 Hour Psycho (1993), the classic Hitchcock film Psycho to play over a 24-hour period. Pierre Huyghe’s monumental installation De-extinction (2014) is shown for the first time in a UK public gallery. In this film, the artist records a moment of reproduction, showing two insects encased in amber, over 30 million years old, as a reflection on the vastness of geological time. Yoko Ono’s iconic video-work Eye-Blink (1966) was exhibited in Ono’s 1997 solo exhibition at Modern Art Oxford, and Turner Prize winner Elizabeth Price’s film installation Sleep (2013) refers to the standby mode of digital devices rather than a restful state, and the nature of our constantly ‘switched-on’ society.

Image: Yoko Ono, Eye-Blink (1966), The Indivisible Present Modern Art Oxford. Photo: P A Black © Artlyst 2016.

All the works on display will explore temporality in art as a celebration of the longevity of the gallery, with visitors to the show being able to see the processes of exhibition-making first hand as another temporal aspect of the exhibition, by allowing them to see behind the scenes of the institution at work with artists and artworks.

About Modern Art Oxford:

The gallery was founded in 1966, Modern Art Oxford has an international reputation for ambitious and innovative projects, with all events completely free of charge, unless stated. The gallery aims to make contemporary art accessible and engaging to the widest audience through presentation and participation. The programme celebrates the relevance of contemporary visual culture to society today. Modern Art Oxford has an agenda shaped by a belief in dialogue between contemporary art and ideas, and seeks to create new relationships between artists and audiences at the beginning of the 21st century.

Words: Paul Black. Audio: Paul Hobson. Photos: P A Black © Artlyst 2016.

KALEIDOSCOPE: The Indivisible Present – Modern Art Oxford – until 16 April 2016.

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