Timothy Crisp at Enköping Konsthall
January 30th, 2011 § 0
LOULOU CHERINET – TESTAMENTS BETRAYED at RÖDA STEN
January 30th, 2011 § 0
22 January – 27 February 2011
The show at Röda Sten takes the title from her new piece, Testaments Betrayed.
Even though links with her previous work La Verdad Sobre Esta Obra can be traced in the new piece, her focus moves towards a sort of political economy of the image, engaging in a complex process of questioning our visual culture, its social codes and workings of perception and communication.
If in La Verdad Sobre Esta Obra the viewer’s perception is challenged in its physicality, in Testaments Betrayed the action is moved back inside the “image box”.
Two new sculptural elements are also introduced – the large, backwards leaning screen and the Theatron-like seating construction.
The linear narrative is almost non-existent, while a stylistic choice with symbolically related images, cut together in a way that suggests psychological relations rather than a temporal continuum, pervades the screen.
The work is rich with references to different methods of montage and their respective ideological implications.
Put in historic perspective, on the one side we have the classical Hollywood style of editing, where meaning is constructed in a linear, uninterrupted “continuity”.
On the other hand we have the revolutionary techniques of montage experimented by the early Soviet film-makers, with Eisenstein and his “intellectual montage” as the brightest example. In the latter, inference is to be reached through what he called “reductio ad absurdum” – a constant interpolation of seemingly unrelated shots – meant to enhance the analytic faculties and the engagement of the viewer.
Testaments Betrayed deals with our omnipresent “mediatised reality”, but instead of dismissing it as unreal “shadows from the cave”, Cherinet recognizes that images, discourses, texts and media are indeed quite real in their modes of industrial production, social force, political effects and cultural power. She immerses herself in “mediatised reality” in order to perceive and analyse reality itself.
Disinterested in directing the viewer’s emotions, Cherinet rather seems to aim at an opportunity to encourage and direct the thought process itself.
Even though narrative storytelling is central to her practice, Cherinet uses the combination of image/language flows – our communication systems – with a twist.
In her body of work, fictitious or real stories are depicted or told repetitively and comparatively, with subtle, almost invisible changes permeating the different versions (Allegory of the Cock, Minor Field Study).
She often employs what could be described as a “stream of consciousness”, a fictional device and narrative mode used in psychology and literature, where unedited conversations of characters are allowed to flow and narration lacks “correct” punctuation or syntax, favouring a looser, more incomplete style (White Women).
In this way, Cherinet resists easy dichotomies associated with her background (white versus black, man versus woman, reality versus fiction). She rather acts as a multiple “agency” – woman, half breed, artist/author – opening up a new space in her work, a space in which preconceptions are challenged and categories defied.
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Testaments Betrayed consists of the following works by Loulou Cherinet:
White Women (2002); Bleeding Men 1 (2003); Bleeding Men 2 (2005); Spotted Women 1:2 (2006); Minor Field Study (2006); Allegory of the Cock (2006); Spotted Women 2:1 (2008); Magical Transformations of the World (2009);
La Verdad Sobre Esta Obra (2010); Testaments Betrayed (2011)
John Duncan interview at NRK (Norwegian Television)
January 25th, 2011 § 0
John Duncan at Rod Bianco Gallery, Oslo
January 14th, 2011 § 0
John Duncan
Think of me as you will
21 January – 20 February, 2011
ROD BIANCO Gallery in Oslo
Rod Bianco Gallery is proud to present John Duncan for the first time in Norway. John Duncan is an artist who has lived and worked in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Amsterdam” Amsterdam, currently lives and works in Bologna. His body of work includes performance art, installations, contemporary music, video art and experimental film, often involving the extensive use of recorded sound. His music is composed mainly of recordings from shortwave radio, field recordings and voice. His events and installations are a form of existential research, often confrontational in nature.
John Duncan was born in the United States in 1953, has lived and worked in Tokyo and Amsterdam and currently resides in Bologna where he teaches audio art at the Accademia delle Belle Arti. His events and installations have recently been held at Färgfabriken and Gallery Niklas Belenius in Stockholm, Ex-Teresa in Mexico City, XSNOSA in Palermo, Netmage 7 in Bologna, PX2 and PX3 in Piombino, O’Artoteca in Milan, Atlantic Waves in London, The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Boston, Eco e Narciso in Turin, MUTEK in Montreal, The Compound in San Francisco, Teatro Fondamenta Nuova in Venice, Teatro Piccolo Jovinelli in Rome, the Noorlands Operan in Umeå, Fylkingen in Stockholm, the 2nd Gothenburg Biennial and Galleria Enrico Fornello in Prato. He has performed with Musica Nova in Tel Aviv and Zeitkratzer in Berlin, directing these ensembles in live events. His CD releases THE CRACKLING (1996 with Max Springer), TAP INTERNAL (2000), PALACE of MIND (2001 with Giuliana Stefani), FRESH (2002 with Zeitkratzer), PHANTOM BROADCAST (2002), INFRASOUND-TIDAL (2003), THE KEENING TOWERS (2003) and NINE SUGGESTIONS (2005 with Mika Vainio and Ilpo Väisänen, a.k.a. Pan Sonic) are all considered by critics and composers alike to be benchmarks in the field of experimental music. His work in radio, video and performance has been shown recently at the Getty Center (Evidence of Movement and California Video) as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles (Out of Actions:Between Performance and its Objects, 1998); the Osterreichisches Museum für Angewandte Kunst (MAK), Vienna; Museu d’Arte Contemporani, Barcelona (MACBA); and Museum of Tokyo (MOT)
ROD BIANCO
Tordenskiolds gate 5
0160 Oslo, Norway
www.rodbianco.com/
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For more information, please contact
ROD BIANCO
info@rodbianco.com
C: + 47 92 42 87 81
P: + 47 22 33 21 00
Or
Niklas Belenius
Navin Rawanchaikul at La Biennale di Venezia, 54th International Art Exhibition
January 3rd, 2011 § 0
