|
back to page 1 ...
This video installation at ®edux brings together the work of two of the
artists contributing to 'Use this kind of Sky',
an exhibition project located across a number of sites and contexts in London during November and
December.
In bringing the work of these two artists together there is, on first
encounter, a wilfulness at work, a strong
sense of dissimilarity, of serious incompatibility.
As if the 'norms' of aesthetic curation
have been undermined; notions of completeness,
wholeness and curational sensibility appear to have been disregarded.
However what this apparent insensitivity raises is the adherence to familiar tropes of critical judgement
and in the process of questioning these qualitative boundaries new positions,
relationships and evaluative spaces are brought into play.
Arjen de Leeuw's small monitor based video-work
'Knightbirds' is a slow paced piece that
operates within a minimalist sensibility in which the implied narrative hovers around a single
point. There is an 'air'
of expectation, of anxiety and conceptual awaiting.
The presence of two characters on the balcony of an anonymous tower block in an unidentified location
is the focus of the piece. Dressed in transparent plastic
capes, standing almost motionless they seem totally at odds with the environment
as if 'beamed down' from another time and
place. We are presented with a spatial ambiguity in which there is an
unresolved interplay between the real and the virtual.
back to page 1 ...
[ Events ]
|
Nooshin Farhid's projected video-work
'Mrs Hodgins frequent use of air freshener',
by comparison is fast and visually overwhelming, a series of intense narrative
strands takes the viewer on a number of broken, disrupted
journeys. each of these journeys culled from different filmic genres and
more specifically are derived from the mass media and popular culture;
from Bollywood to Social Documentary, from Soaps to Reality TV and Porn
Movies. In re-presenting these often
crass, banal and familiar images back to us in a new context Farhid
discovers more dark and disturbing aspects, the comfort zone of the
ordinary is destabilised and a counter narrative is brought to our attention.
Politically this work is restless and resistant to the cultural
'givens' of the day.
Arjen de Leeuw lives and works in Amsterdam his recent exhibitions include:
Impakt av BBQ Utrecht Holland 2005, Island Film
& Video Festival London 2005 and No Pre,
No Con at Galeria Moriarty Magrid Spain 2004.
Nooshin Farhid was born in Tehran, Iran and now lives and works in
London, her recent exhibitions include 'To
be continued? curated by The British Council for the Helsinki Photography
Festival Helsinki MUU Gallery Finland 2005, 'In the Shadow of Fallen
Heroes' 2nd Bishkek International Contemporary Art Exhibition Kyrgystan
2005, and 'Subject to Endless
Gossip' Sparwasser HQ, Berlin 2004.
|
