Display Gallery presents ‘A Sequence of Nows’, a group exhibition by six promising, international artists for whom time acts as a strand within a multidisciplinary practice. Bringing together works across media, the selected artists aim not only to challenge our established understanding of time, but also our notions of identity, materiality, history and the relationship between them.
Engaging with the concept in a highly subjective and lyrical manner, the works on display can be seen as both personal reflections on and active investigations into the concept of temporality. These intimate studies and explorations reveal time’s ability to profoundly alter the pieces and in doing so to add different layers of meaning to them.
The title of the exhibition references Aristotle’s discussion of time as a fluid concept and its intimate connection to the notion of change. The passage of time is not locked into one frame, but rather exposed and investigated in- depth across the two floors of the gallery. Works featuring non traditional, ‘everyday” materials (hair, treads, burned paper pieces, aluminium powder) made using unconventional processes and substances are reminiscent of arte povera and the nascent days of conceptual art. By deliberately appropriating these low-value materials (broken stockings, mirrors) or altering and deconstructing ‘precious’, traditional ones (canvases, copper plates) the artists in the show seek to reveal their hidden components and their symbolic and sometimes irreverent aspects.
Elevating artistic process over final product they treat time not just as the theme, but rather as the fluid, transformative process that constantly alters and recasts the work they produce. Forcing the viewer into questioning their own relationship with this enigmatic and ever- changing concept, the exhibition is an exercise in acknowledging the presence of the present.
As part of ‘Sequence of Nows’ artist Moi Tran will be presenting two new ‘action’ pieces, combining her work with textile and her interest in the affects of movement on her work. In a dual presentation, the pieces explore ‘Temporality’ as a state of existing within, or having some relationship with time in a spatial composition. Temporality is an intrinsic property of the object, in this work Tran and her collaborators employ textile as the object and movement to observe the experience of time and the temporary claiming of space through insistence and repetition of action.
Caroline Abbotts – Claudia Barthoi – Yi Dai – Florian Foerster – Kristian Kragelund – Andrea Medjesi-Jones
A Sequence Of Nows – Display Gallery – until 30 July 2015