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Dancing at the Edge of the World
curated by Marcelle Joseph
‘...when women speak truly, they speak subversively -- they can't help it:
if you're underneath, if you're kept down, you break out, you subvert.
We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth,
as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains’.
- Ursula K. Le Guin [Bryn Mawr Commencement Address (1986)in Dancing at the Edge of the World (1989)]
To make a new world you start with an old one, certainly.
To find a world, maybe you have to have lost one. Maybe you have to be lost.
This dance of renewal, the dance that made the world, was always danced here
at the edge of things, on the brink, on the foggy coast.
- Ursula K. Le Guin [World-Making (1981) in Dancing at the Edge of the World (1989)]
Appropriating the title of Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1989 non-fiction collection, Dancing at the Edge of the World, this group exhibition envisions a futuristic, alternative world where humankind speaks what Le Guin calls the ‘mother tongue’, the language that encourages relations, networks and exchanges, instead of the forked ‘father tongue’ – the language of power spoken by ‘Civilised Man’ who sees the rest of society in a terminal dichotomy of subject/object, self/other, male/female, mind/body, active/passive, Man/Nature, dominant/submissive. The exhibition itself will be a centre of subversive feminist activity where the body – fleshy, often leaky and sometimes desirous - is omnipresent but never separated from the mind. The artists in this exhibition invade their own privacy to explore embodiment and representation in an anarchic and self-realising strategy of empowerment. There will be artworks that have an eruptive feeling that echo the universes that can be found in Le Guin’s novels that yearn for a feminist or non-binary utopia - a new universalism of sorts, devoid of inequality, domination and exploitation and full of feminine pleasure.
At the centre of this exhibition will be a ‘drawing in space’ in the form of a king-sized canopy bed complete with a queen’s crown made by Charlotte Colbert that will be activated through performance on Wednesday, 26th February 2020. Florence Peake and Eve Stainton will perform a volcanic duet, using the intimacy of their lesbian polyamorous relationship to elevate the marginalised affection, sexuality, power and energy of the sensual and visceral queer body. The backdrop of this performative space will be a giant wall mural produced specifically for this exhibition by Saelia Aparicio. Another performance will take place on the opening night when Proudick (the artist duo and collaborative artistic enterprise founded by Lindsey Mendick and Paloma Proudfoot) transform themselves into shopkeepers to man their designer shoe shop - that quintessential haven of aspirational feminine desire.
In this exhibition, to quote Le Guin one last time, these ten female-identifying artists ‘dance[ ]… at the edge of things’ in order to rid the old world of its populist, patriarchal tendencies that have persisted in the oppression and othering of humans that lay outside a narrow demographic of power and genius and to build a new world where marginalised communities are not always on the verge of becoming but have become fully actualised humans with all the rights and privileges of ‘Civilised Man’.
Text by Marcelle Joseph
Artist Biographies
Saelia Aparicio (b. 1982, Spain) is a London-based Spanish artist who completed her MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 2015. Her multidisciplinary work dwells on ideas of the organic, establishing analogies between corporeal and social mechanisms. The body is a malleable source of wonder and horror for Aparicio in her practice that spans large-scale mural drawings and sculptures that often feature modified found objects and mouth blown glass. Humour, and an aesthetic style inspired by comic books and cartoons, belies a concern for the bodily impact of daily life, the environment, disease and age. In 2019, Aparicio won Generaciones 2019, one of the most prestigious awards for emerging artists in Europe, and was commissioned by the Serpentine Gallery to make the film ‘Green Shoots’ for their General Ecology symposium and research project, ‘The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish with Plants’ in London. Solo exhibitions include: ‘Protesis para invertebrados’, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain (2019); ‘Smudging Gooey Airs’, Sarabande Foundation, London (2018); ‘Cadena Atrofica’, Murcia, Spain in collaboration with designer Attua Aparicio from Silo Studio (2018); ‘Your Consequences Have Actions’, The Tetley, Leeds (2017); ‘Peaks & Troughs’, TURF Projects, London (2017); ‘Burning With Joy’, ASC Gallery, London (2016); and ‘Espeleologia epidermica’, Domus Artium, Salamanca, Spain (2015). Group shows include: ‘Retour Sur Mulholland Drive’ (curated by Nicolas Bourriaud), La Panacée, Montpellier, France (2017); ‘Bloomberg New Contemporaries’, The Bluecoat, Liverpool, and The ICA, London (2016), and ‘A Mysterical Day’ (curated by Tai Shani), Serpentine Gallery public programme, London (2016). Aparicio has undertaken the following residencies: FIBRA Platform, Mexico (2019); The Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK (2019); New Contemporaries Studio Bursary with Sarabande: The Lee Alexander Mcqueen Foundation (2017); Sema Nanji Residency, Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea (2016); Salzamt Aterlierhaus, Linz, Austria (2014); and Joan Miró Foundation, Palma de Mallorca, Spain (2012).
Charlotte Colbert (b. 1985, New York, USA) is a Franco/British moving image and multimedia artist who lives and works in London. She completed her MFA at London Film School in 2009. Language, psychoanalysis and sociopolitical constructions of gender and identity are at the heart of Colbert’s practice. Colbert’s recent ceramic series continues her play with the inversion and subversion of the inside and the outside. Bodily functions and reproductive organs are reimagined through baby pink lacquered and flocked ceramic sculptures of viral cells, breasts and stomachs. Selected solo exhibitions include: ‘Guests: A Day at Home’, V&A Museum of Childhood, London (2018); ‘Ordinary Madness’, Gazelli Art House, London (2016) and ‘In and Out of Space’ (a public commission at 90 Piccadilly) London (2015). Selected group exhibitions include: ‘Fibra Residency Show’, Von Goetz Art, London (2019); ‘Mademoiselle (37 Women Artists)’, CRAC Centre Regional d Art Contemporain Occitanie, Sete, France (2018); ‘From Selfie to Self Expression’, Saatchi Gallery, London (2017) and ‘Daydreaming with Stanley Kubrick’ (curated by James Lavelle and James Putnam), Somerset House, London, (2016). Colbert has held presentations at Art Basel Hong Kong, Istanbul Art Fair, Art Basel Miami and Photo London.
Monika Grabuschnigg (b. 1987, Austria) is a Berlin-based sculptor and mixed media artist who completed her MA in Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and studied as an exchange student at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and in Santiago at the Universidad Católica de Chile. Using clay as her primary medium, Grabuschnigg focuses in her artistic practice on the feeling of acceleration in an increasingly augmented, anxiety-inducing and commercialized alienating environment. Her work investigates, fragments, and reassembles cultural phenomenons: (technological) symbols are distorted and reconstructed into new narratives, the evidence of searching for an epistemology in a contemporary world in which our physical desires and guiding beliefs are directed and dictated by malign algorithms. In 2018, Grabuschnigg won the Berlin Art Prize and, in 2016, she received the Young Artist Award from the Federal State Government of Vorarlberg in Austria. Recent solo exhibitions include those at Studioraum 45 cbm - Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany (2019); REITER Galerie, Leipzig, Germany (2019); and Carbon12, Dubai, UAE (2018). With respect to group exhibitions, Grabuschnigg has recently exhibited in ‘The Garden Bridge’, Brücke Museum, Berlin, German (2019); ‘Nightshades’, Polansky Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic (2019); ‘Berlin Art Prize Nominees Exhibition’, The Shelf, Berlin (2018); ‘What satisfaction could you possibly have’, Carbon12, Dubai (2018); ‘A Strong Desire’, PS120, Berlin (2018); and ‘Haptic House’, Horse and Pony Fine Arts, Berlin (2018).
Zsófia Keresztes (b. 1985, Budapest, Hungary) is a Budapest-based artist who completed her fine art studies in 2010 at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in Budapest. She makes sculptures that speculate how the real world extends into virtuality, following both a technological understanding as well as Marcel Proust’s comprehension of virtuality: memory as ‘real but not actual, ideal but not abstract’. Keresztes treats the virtual as something that is ‘as if’ it was real, establishing game theories and what-if scenarios for how digital infestation becomes incarnated, how algorithms and digital avatars manifest themselves in the world and cannibalise sensation and perception. Selected solo and two-person exhibitions include those at Gianni Manhattan, Vienna (2018); Karlin Studios, Prague (2018); Prague City Gallery, Prague (with Anna Hulačová) (2018); and Labor, Budapest (2016). Recent selected group exhibitions include: 15th Lyon Biennale, Lyon, France (2019); ‘Stone Telling’, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna, Austria (2019); ‘Love Data’, 16th Alios Biennale, La Teste de Buch, France (2019); ‘Liquid Bodies’, Philara Collection, Düsseldorf, Germany (2019); ‘Streamlines of the Jungle’, MAGMA, Sf. Gheorge, Romania (2019); ‘Sunbaked Thirst with Love’, ENA Viewing Space, Budapest (2019); ‘Orient’, Galeria Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, Poland (2018); ‘Jutro’, Castor Projects, London (2018); ‘Orient, Kim?’, Riga, Latvia (2018); ‘Somewhere in between’, BOZAR, Brussels (2018); ‘Haptic House’, Horse and Pony, Berlin (2018); ‘Abstract Hungary’, Künstlerhaus- Halle für Kunst und Medien, Graz (2017); ‘Endless Backup’, Futurdome, Milan (2017); ‘Textour’, Künstlerforum, Bonn (2017).
Alexi Marshall (b. 1995, London, UK) is a London-based artist who graduated from the Slade School of Art in 2018. She works in print, fabric, drawing and embroidery, investigating themes of spirituality, sexuality and womanhood. Linocut printing is a recurring medium in Marshall’s practice. Her prints and drawings convey a temporality, as lines, bodies and worlds fold into each other to create theatrical tableaux and morality plays, populated by saints and sinners. A certain kind of violence is projected as the images are scratched and carved into the medium in these labour intensive, detailed carvings. Marshall has exhibited her work in a solo exhibition at Public Gallery, London in 2019 and in selected group shows including: ‘We Always Dance Here’, Flatland Projects, Hastings, UK (2019); ‘Pareidolia’, Space Station Gallery and Daniel Benjamin Gallery, London (2019); ‘Inaugural Exhibition’, Guts Gallery, London (2019); ‘Young Gods’, Charlie Smith, London (2019); ‘Figurative NOW’, Daniel Benjamin Gallery, London (2018); and Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2018, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool and South London Gallery, London (2018).
Lindsey Mendick (b. 1987, London, UK) is a London-based artist who received an MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London in 2017. Mendick’s practice is hinged to her skilled work in ceramics, which she describes being drawn to for its tactile nature and its desire to be manipulated by the maker. She also embraces banner painting, sewing, metalwork, furniture making and sound within her autobiographical practice. By playfully combining low culture iconography and high culture methods of construction, Mendick creates humorously decadent and elaborate installations that enable the viewer to explore their personal history in a cathartic fashion. As well as her solo sculptural practice, Mendick is a co-founder of the Proudick platform, which is at once an artists’ collective, a project space and a place for exchanging ideas and learning about ceramics. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include: ‘Regrets, I’ve Had a Few’, SPACE, Ilford, UK (2019-2020); ‘Of all the things I’ve lost’ (with Paloma Proudfoot), Ballon Rouge Club, Brussels (2019); ‘The Ex Files’, Castor Projects, London (2019); ‘The Turnpike Pottery’, The Turnpike, Leigh (2018); ‘Perfectly Ripe’, Zabludowicz Collection, London (2018); ‘PROUDICK’ (with Paloma Proudfoot), Hannah Barry Gallery, London (2018); ‘Jamie Fitzpatrick and Lindsey Mendick’, Vitrine, Basel (2018); and ‘She’s Really Nice When You Get To Know Her’, Visual Arts Center, Austin, Texas (2016). Selected group exhibitions include: ‘Survey’, Jerwood Space, London (2018); ‘Something Else’, Triumph Gallery, Moscow (2018); ‘Rhapsodies’, Ping Pong, Brussels (2018); ‘If You Can’t Stand the Heat’, Roaming Projects, London (2018); ‘Flipside’, Fold Gallery, London (2018); ‘You See Me Like a UFO’, Marcelle Joseph Projects, Ascot (2017); ‘Herland’, Bosse & Baum, London (2017); ‘In Dark Times’, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (2017); ‘You Were High When I Was Doomed’, IMT Gallery, London (2017); and ‘Sell Yourself’, Patrick Studios, Leeds (2017).
Florence Peake is a London-based artist who has been making work since 1995. Her performance practice uses drawing, painting and sculpture combined with found and fabricated objects placed in relation to the moving body. Site and audience, live and recorded text, wit and candour are key to her work, which has been presented internationally and across the UK. She was the recipient of the Jerwood Choreographic Research Award in 2016.She makes solo and group performance works intertwined with an extensive visual art practice. A selection of recent exhibitions includes: ‘Apparition Apparition’ (with Eve Stainton) in ‘Meetings on Art’, 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2019); ‘Empathy Hole’, Bosse and Baum, London (2019); ‘RITE: On This Pliant Body We Slip Our Wow!’, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, UK (2018); ‘DO DISTURB Festival’, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2018); ‘Andromedan Sad Girl’ (a collaborative exhibition with Tai Shani), Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, UK (2017), ‘RITE’, Studio Leigh, London (2017), ‘We perform I am in love with my body’, Bosse and Baum, London (2017); ‘Walled Gardens in an Insane Eden’, Sara Zanin Gallery, Rome (2017); ‘The Keeners’, SPACE, London (2016); ‘Voicings’, Serpentine Gallery Offsite Project, London (2016); ‘Lay me down’, NoTT Dance Festival, Nottingham, UK and Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK (2015); ‘Swell the Thickening Surface of’, Hayward Gallery, London (2014); ‘MAKE’, BALTIC, Gateshead, UK (2013) and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire, UK (2012); ‘REMAKE’, Baltic 39, Gateshead, UK (2012) and Lanchester Gallery, Coventry, UK (2012); and ‘Paper Portraits’, National Portrait Gallery, London (2010).
Paloma Proudfoot (b.1992, London, UK) is a London-based artist who received an MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London in 2017 after studying at Edinburgh College of Art. Proudfoot’s practice includes a variety of media, ranging from sculpture to performance. Textile and organic matter, such as clay, are common materials appearing in her body of work, seemingly playful but at the same time reflecting and discussing current topics of her own generation. As well as her solo sculptural practice, Proudfoot is co-director of the performance group Stasis and co-founder of the Proudick platform, which is at once an artists’ collective, a project space and a place for exchanging ideas and learning about ceramics. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include: ‘CURING’, Sans Titre, Paris (2019); ‘A History of Scissors’, Soy Capitan, Berlin (2019); ‘A Quick Descent’ Art Berlin Fair with Soy Capitan, Berlin (2018); ‘The Detachable Head Serves as a Cup’, Cob Gallery, London (2018); ‘PROUDICK’ (with Lindsey Mendick), Hannah Barry Gallery, London (2018); ‘The Clean Carcass of the Host’ (with George Rouy for Condo Mexico), Marso Galeria, Mexico City (2018); ‘The Thinking Business’ (with Rebecca Ounstead), The Royal Standard, Liverpool (2017); and ‘There’s One Missing From Your Bunch’, May Projects, London (2016). Selected group exhibitions include: ‘Cet élixir’, Moly Sabata, Sablons, France (2019); ‘SM’, Sans Titre, Marseille (2018); ‘Something Else’, Triumph Gallery, Moscow (2018); ‘Rhapsodies’, Ping Pong, Brussels (2018); ‘Becoming Plant’, Tenderpixel, London (2018); ‘Towards a Theory of Powerful Things’, Rod Barton, London (2018); ‘Chambre Dix’, Sans Titre, Paris (2018); ‘Terra’, Lamb Arts, London (2018); ‘Ripe’, Kingsgate Workshops, London (2018); ‘If You Can’t Stand the Heat’, Roaming Projects, London (2018); ‘Doing it in Public’, Beaconsfield Gallery, London (2017); and ‘Herland’, Bosse and Baum, London (2017). Proudfoot has participated in the Thun Ceramic Residency (2018), the Moly Sabata – Albert Gleizes Foundation Residency (2019) and the Irish Museum of Modern Art Residency (with her performance group, Stasis).
Megan Rooney (b. 1985, Canada) is a London-based Canadian artist who completed her MA in Fine Arts at Goldsmiths College in London in 2011 after finishing her BA at the University of Toronto in Canada and growing up between South Africa, Brazil and Canada. Rooney works across a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, installation, performance and language. With a striking signature style, Rooney develops enigmatic and always intense narratives. She draws the subjects of her works directly from her own life and surroundings. These are fanciful and, in some cases, grotesque everyday experiences, as well as sometimes humorous observations, which she always first ‘jots down’ as drawings. A recurring element in Rooney’s work is the human body, which can be seen as the subjective starting point and final ‘place’ of sedimentation for all these experiences. Rooney has upcoming solo exhibitions in 2020 at Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg Austria; Drei, Cologne, Germany; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto. Recent solo exhibitions include those at SALTS, Basel (2019); Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf (2019); Drei, Cologne (2018); Tramway, Glasgow (2017); Cordova, Vienna (2017); Freymond Guth Fine Arts, Basel (2017); Division Gallery, Toronto (2017); Seventeen, London (2016); and Croy Nielsen, Berlin (2016). Recent group exhibitions include: 15th Lyon Biennial, Lyon, France (2019); ‘Paint, also known as Blood’, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland (2019); ‘Childhood. Another Banana Day for the Perfect Fish’, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018); and ‘(X) A Fantasy’, David Roberts Art Foundation, London (2017). Recent performances by Rooney include: ‘Everywhere Been There, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany (2019); ‘Sun Down Moon Up’, Park Nights 2018, Serpentine Gallery, London (2018); ‘Others got wings for flying’, Tramway, Glasgow (2017); ‘Poor Memory, Without Poetry Nothing is Possible’, Venice Biennale, Salon Suisse, Venice (2017); ‘f on your tongue’, Project 1049, LUMA Foundation, Glacier 3000 Tissot Peak Walk, Gstaad, Switzerland (2016); ‘Last Days. Last Days. Last Days’, Serpentine Galleries, London (2015); and ‘Poetry Sets’, Cell Project Space, London (2015).
Eve Stainton is a movement artist inspired by the complexities of uncodeable, poetic queer encounters. This manifests through practices of dancing/digital collage/connecting with community/skewing edges. Her/their movement approaches are informed by somatic philosophies and favour imaginative textures over prescribed shapes layered onto the body. Stainton’s practice often takes the form of intimate collaborations exploring desire and vulnerability as a technology or force against restrictive normative constructs. Since 2016, Stainton has also been collaborating with artist Florence Peake, with their most recent work ‘Apparition Apparition’ being commissioned for the Venice Biennale 2019. Some other notable presentations include: Nottingham Contemporary (2019), Sadler’s Wells Lilian Baylis Theatre (2019), The Place Theatre, London (2018), Royal Academy of Art, London (2018), Tangente Theatre Montreal, Canada (2017), Siobhan Davies Dance, London (2018), Hayward 50th Anniversary event, London (2018), PS/Y’s ‘Hysteria’ programme, London (2018), and Adelaide Fringe, Australia (2017). Stainton has also performed for the following artists: Anthea Hamilton at Tate Britain, London (2018); Last Yearz Interesting Negro/Jamila Johnson-Small at the ICA, London (2017); and Compagnie ECO’s international tour (2016-17) and has modelled on a freelance basis in the fashion and commercial industry for Vivienne Westwood, Dior, London/Paris/Shanghai Fashion Week, Goldfrapp and Holly Blakey. Stainton also leads movement workshops, recently at Tate Britain as part of 'Queer & Now', using fantasy and touch as a way to experience a shared confidence, power and ownership of the body to erupt and expose queer potential.
About the Curator
Marcelle Joseph is a London-based American independent curator and collector. In 2011, Joseph founded Marcelle Joseph Projects, a nomadic curatorial platform that has produced 36 exhibitions in the UK and the rest of Europe, featuring the work of over 200 international artists. Joseph's expertise is in early career artists based in the UK, in particular, female-identifying and non-binary artists, and has an academic specialization in feminist art practice after completing an MA in Art History with Distinction from Birkbeck, University of London. In 2013, she executive edited Korean Art: The Power of Now (Thames & Hudson), a survey of the contemporary art scene in South Korea. Additionally, Joseph is a trustee of Matt’s Gallery, London and served on the jury of the 2017-2019 Max Mara Art Prize for Women, in collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery and Collezione Maramotti, and the Mother Art Prize 2018. She also collects artworks by female-identifying artists under the collecting partnership, GIRLPOWER Collection, as well as more generally as part of the Marcelle Joseph Collection. Throughout 2020, Joseph will act as Curatorial Consultant for Lychee One, a commercial gallery located in East London. She will co-curate her first museum exhibition at the ICA LA in Los Angeles in July 2020.
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Dancing at the Edge of the World
curata da Marcelle Joseph
‘...when women speak truly, they speak subversively -- they can't help it: if you're underneath, if you're kept down, you break out, you subvert. We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains’.
- Ursula K. Le Guin [Bryn Mawr Commencement Address (1986) in Dancing at the Edge of the World (1989)]
To make a new world you start with an old one, certainly. To find a world, maybe you have to have lost one. Maybe you have to be lost. This dance of renewal, the dance that made the world, was always danced here at the edge of things, on the brink, on the foggy coast.
- Ursula K. Le Guin [World-Making (1981) in Dancing at the Edge of the World (1989)]
Prendendo in prestito il titolo dalla raccolta di saggi di Ursula K. Le Guin del 1989, Dancing at the Edge of the World, questa mostra collettiva mette in scena un mondo futuristico e alternativo in cui l'umanità parla attraverso quella che Le Guin chiama la "lingua madre", ovvero un linguaggio che incoraggia le relazioni , le connessioni e gli scambi, al posto di una "lingua paterna" biforcuta – ossia il linguaggio del potere parlato dall’ “Uomo Civilizzato” che guarda al resto della società da un’ottica dicotomica contesa tra termini oppositivi come soggetto / oggetto, sé / altro, maschio / femmina, mente / corpo, attivo / passivo, Uomo / Natura, dominante / sottomesso. La mostra stessa sarà un centro di attività femminista sovversiva in cui il corpo – fatto di carne, spesso permeabile e talvolta desideroso - è onnipresente ma mai separato dalla mente. Le artiste in questa mostra invadono la propria privacy per esplorare l'incarnazione e la rappresentazione attraverso una strategia anarchica e auto-realizzante di legittimazione. Ci saranno opere d'arte che possiedono una sensazione eruttiva in grado di riecheggiare gli universi dei romanzi di Le Guin, desiderosi di un'utopia femminista o non binaria - una sorta di nuovo universalismo, privo di disuguaglianze, dominio e sfruttamento e pieno di piacere femminile.
Al centro di questa mostra, alla stregua di un 'disegno nello spazio', ci sarà un letto a baldacchino di grandi dimensioni, completo di corona regale, realizzato da Charlotte Colbert, che verrà “attivato” durante le performance di mercoledì 26 febbraio 2020. Florence Peake ed Eve Stainton si esibiranno in un duetto esplosivo, impiegando l'intimità della loro relazione poliamorosa lesbica per elevare l'affetto, la sessualità, il potere e l'energia marginalizzati di un corpo queer sensuale e viscerale. Lo sfondo di questo spazio performativo sarà un gigantesco murale prodotto appositamente per la mostra da Saelia Aparicio. Un'altra performance si svolgerà nella serata di apertura quando Proudick (duo di artiste e impresa artistica collaborativa fondata da Lindsey Mendick e Paloma Proudfoot) si trasformeranno nelle commesse di un negozio di scarpe di design - paradiso per eccellenza cui aspira il desiderio femminile.
In questa mostra, per citare Le Guin un'ultima volta, queste dieci artiste "ballano [] ... al limite delle cose" per liberare il vecchio mondo dalla sua tendenza populista e patriarcale, che persiste nell'oppressione e nell’esclusione delle alterità, di quegli esseri umani che si trovano al di fuori di un ristretto gruppo demografico che si identifica con il potere e il genio, per costruire invece un nuovo mondo in cui le comunità emarginate non sono sempre sul punto di divenire, ma sono diventate comunità di individui pienamente realizzati, con tutti i diritti e i privilegi dell' “Uomo Civilizzato”.
Biografie delle artiste
Saelia Aparicio (1982, Spagna) è un'artista spagnola con base a Londra che ha completato il suo Master in Scultura presso il Royal College of Art nel 2015. Il suo lavoro multidisciplinare si basa sul concetto di organico, stabilendo analogie tra meccanismi corporei e sociali. Il corpo è una fonte malleabile di meraviglia e orrore nella pratica di Aparacio, che spazia dai dipinti murali su larga scala alle sculture che spesso presentano oggetti, trovati e modificati, e vetro soffiato. L'umorismo e un’estetica ispirata ai fumetti e ai cartoni animati contraddicono la preoccupazione per l'impatto fisico della vita quotidiana, dell'ambiente, del male e dell'età. Nel 2019, Aparicio ha vinto Generaciones 2019, uno dei premi più prestigiosi per artisti emergenti in Europa, ed è stata incaricata dalla Serpentine Gallery di realizzare il film "Green Shoots" per il simposio e progetto di ricerca General Ecology, dal titolo ‘The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish with Plants’ a Londra. Tra le mostre personali: ‘Protesis para invertebrados’, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spagna (2019); ‘Smudging Gooey Airs’, Sarabande Foundation, Londra (2018); ‘Cadena Atrofica’, Murcia, Spagna in collaborazione con il designer Attua Aparicio di Silo Studio (2018); ‘Your Consequences Have Actions’, The Tetley,
Leeds (2017); ‘Peaks & Troughs’, TURF Projects, Londra (2017); ‘Burning With Joy’, ASC Gallery, Londra (2016); e ‘Espeleologia epidermica’, Domus Artium, Salamanca, Spagna (2015). Tra le collettive: ‘Retour Sur Mulholland Drive’ (curate da Nicolas Bourriaud), La Panacée, Montpellier, Francia (2017); ‘Bloomberg New Contemporaries’, The Bluecoat, Liverpool, and The ICA, Londra (2016), e ‘A Mysterical Day’ (curata da Tai Shani), Serpentine Gallery public programme, Londra (2016). Aparicio ha partecipato alle seguenti residenze: FIBRA Platform, Messico (2019); The Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK (2019); New Contemporaries Studio Bursary with Sarabande: The Lee Alexander Mcqueen Foundation (2017); Sema Nanji Residency, Seoul Museum of Art, Sud Corea (2016); Salzamt Aterlierhaus, Linz, Austria (2014); e Joan Miró Foundation, Palma de Mallorca, Spagna (2012).
Charlotte Colbert (1985, New York, USA) è un'artista multimediale di origine franco-britannica che vive e lavora a Londra. Ha completato il suo MFA alla London Film School nel 2009. Linguaggio, psicoanalisi e costruzioni sociopolitiche di genere e identità sono al centro della pratica di Colbert. La recente serie di ceramiche prosegue il suo gioco con l'inversione e la sovversione di interno ed esterno. Le funzioni corporee e gli organi riproduttivi vengono reimmaginati attraverso piccole sculture in ceramica laccata e floccata rosa raffiguranti cellule virali, seni e stomaci. Tra le mostre personali: ‘Guests: A Day at Home’, V&A Museum of Childhood, Londra (2018); ‘Ordinary Madness’, Gazelli Art House, Londra (2016) e ‘In and Out of Space’ (una commissione pubblica al 90 Piccadilly) Londra (2015). Tra le collettive:‘Fibra Residency Show’, Von Goetz Art, Londra (2019); ‘Mademoiselle (37 Women Artists)’, CRAC Centre Regional d Art Contemporain Occitanie, Sete, Francia (2018); ‘From Selfie to SelfExpression’, Saatchi Gallery, Londra (2017) e ‘Daydreaming with Stanley Kubrick’ (curate da James Lavelle e James Putnam), Somerset House, Londra, (2016). Colbert ha tenuto presentazioni ad Art Basel Hong Kong, alla Istanbul Art Fair, ad Art Basel Miami e Photo London.
Monika Grabuschnigg (1987, Austria) è una scultrice e artista multimediale con sede a Berlino che ha completato il suo Master in Belle Arti all'Accademia di Belle Arti di Vienna e ha studiato come exchange student all'Accademia di Belle Arti e Design di Bezalel a Gerusalemme e a Santiago all'Universidad Católica de Chile. Impiegando l'argilla come mezzo principale, Grabuschnigg si concentra nella sua pratica artistica sulla sensazione di accelerazione prodotta da un ambiente alienante sempre più crescente, vettore di ansia e mercificato. Il suo lavoro indaga, frammenta e riassembla fenomeni culturali di vario tipo: i simboli (tecnologici) vengono distorti e ricostruiti in nuove narrazioni, l'evidenza della ricerca di un'epistemologia in un mondo contemporaneo in cui i nostri desideri fisici e le nostre convinzioni guida sono diretti e dettati da algoritmi maligni. Nel 2018, Grabuschnigg ha vinto il Berlin Art Prize e, nel 2016, ha ricevuto lo Young Artist Award dal governo federale del Vorarlberg in Austria. Tra le recenti personali si ricordano quella presso Studioraum 45 cbm - Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germania (2019); quella alla REITER Galerie, Leipzig, Germania (2019) e presso Carbon12, Dubai, UAE (2018). Tra le collettive, Grabuschnigg ha di recente partecipato a ‘The Garden Bridge’, Brücke Museum, Berlino, Germania (2019); ‘Nightshades’, Polansky Gallery, Brno, Repubblica Ceca (2019); ‘Berlin Art Prize Nominees Exhibition’, The Shelf, Berlino (2018); ‘What satisfaction could you possibly have’, Carbon12, Dubai (2018); ‘A Strong Desire’, PS120, Berlino (2018); e ‘Haptic House’, Horse and Pony Fine Arts, Berlino (2018).
Zsófia Keresztes (1985, Budapest, Ungheria) è un'artista con sede a Budapest che ha completato i suoi studi di belle arti nel 2010 presso l'Università ungherese di Belle Arti di Budapest. Realizza sculture che speculano su come il mondo reale si estenda alla virtualità, seguendo sia una comprensione tecnologica che una comprensione della virtualità mutuata da Marcel Proust: la memoria come "reale ma non attuale, ideale ma non astratta". Keresztes tratta il virtuale come qualcosa che è "come se" fosse reale, stabilendo teorie del gioco e scenari ipotetici su come si incarna l'infestazione digitale, come algoritmi e avatar digitali si manifestano nel mondo e cannibalizzano sensazione e percezione. Tra le personali e bi-personali si ricordano quella presso Gianni Manhattan, Vienna (2018); presso Karlin Studios, Prague (2018); presso Prague City Gallery, Prague (con Anna Hulačová) (2018); e presso Labor, Budapest (2016). Tra le recenti collettive: 15th
Lyon Biennale, Lyon, Francia (2019); ‘Stone Telling’, Kunstraum Niederösterreich, Vienna, Austria (2019); ‘Love Data’, 16th Alios Biennale, La Teste de Buch, Francia (2019); ‘Liquid Bodies’, Philara Collection, Düsseldorf, Germania (2019); ‘Streamlines of the Jungle’, MAGMA, Sf. Gheorge, Romania (2019); ‘Sunbaked Thirst with Love’, ENA Viewing Space, Budapest (2019); ‘Orient’, Galeria Bunkier Sztuki, Cracovia, Polonia (2018); ‘Jutro’, Castor Projects, Londra (2018); ‘Orient, Kim?’, Riga, Latvia (2018); ‘Somewhere in between’, BOZAR, Brussels (2018); ‘Haptic House’, Horse and Pony, Berlino (2018); ‘Abstract Hungary’, Künstlerhaus- Halle für Kunst und Medien, Graz (2017); ‘Endless Backup’, Futurdome, Milano (2017); ‘Textour’, Künstlerforum, Bonn (2017).
Alexi Marshall (1995, Londra, Regno Unito) è un'artista londinese che si è laureata alla Slade School of Art nel 2018. Lavora con la stampa, il tessuto, il disegno e il ricamo, affrontando temi legati alla spiritualità, alla sessualità e alla femminilità. La stampa Linocut è un mezzo ricorrente nella pratica di Marshall. Le sue stampe e i suoi disegni trasmettono un’idea di temporalità, mentre linee, corpi e mondi si mescolano l'uno nell'altro per creare tableaux teatrali e giochi morali, popolati da santi e peccatori. Un certo tipo di violenza viene proiettato nel momento in cui le immagini vengono graffiate e scolpite mediante intagli dettagliati e intensi. Marshall ha esibito il suo lavoro in una personale alla Public Gallery di Londra nel 2019 e in alcune mostre collettive tra cui: ‘We Always Dance Here’, Flatland Projects, Hastings, UK (2019); ‘Pareidolia’, Space Station Gallery and Daniel Benjamin Gallery, Londra (2019); ‘Inaugural Exhibition’, Guts Gallery, Londra (2019); ‘Young Gods’, Charlie Smith, Londra (2019); ‘Figurative NOW’, Daniel Benjamin Gallery, Londra (2018); e Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2018, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool and South London Gallery, Londra (2018).
Lindsey Mendick (1987, Londra, Regno Unito) è un'artista londinese che ha conseguito un Master in Scultura al Royal College of Art di Londra nel 2017. La pratica di Mendick si basa sulla sua abile opera in ceramica, che l’artista descrive come attraente per via della sua natura tattile e per il desiderio che suscita di essere manipolata dal produttore. La sua pratica è autobiografica ed abbraccia inoltre la pittura su striscioni, il cucito, la lavorazione dei metalli, la produzione di mobili e il suono. Combinando giocosamente l'iconografia della cultura bassa e i metodi di costruzione della cultura alta, Mendick crea installazioni umoristicamente decadenti ed elaborate che consentono allo spettatore di esplorare la propria storia personale in modo catartico. Oltre alla sua pratica scultorea solista, Mendick è co-fondatrice della piattaforma Proudick, che è allo stesso tempo una collettività di artisti, uno spazio di progetto e un luogo per lo scambio di idee e l'apprendimento della ceramica. Recenti mostre personali e come duo artistico includono: ‘Regrets, I’ve Had a Few’, SPACE, Ilford, Regno Unito (2019-2020); ‘Of all the things I’ve lost’ (con Paloma Proudfoot), Ballon Rouge Club, Bruxelles (2019); ‘The Ex Files’, Castor Projects, Londra (2019); ‘The Turnpike Pottery’, The Turnpike, Leigh (2018); ‘Perfectly Ripe’, collezione Zabludowicz, Londra (2018); ‘PROUDICK’ (con Paloma Proudfoot), Hannah Barry Gallery, Londra (2018); ‘Jamie Fitzpatrick and Lindsey Mendick’, Vitrine, Basilea (2018); e ‘She’s Really Nice When You Get To Know Her’, Visual Arts Center, Austin, Texas (2016). Le mostre collettive selezionate includono: ‘Survey’, Jerwood Space, Londra (2018); ‘Something Else’, Triumph Gallery, Mosca (2018); ‘Rhapsodies’, Ping Pong, Bruxelles (2018); ‘If You Can’t Stand the Heat’, Roaming Projects, Londra (2018); ‘Flipside’, Fold Gallery, Londra (2018); ‘You See Me Like a UFO’, Marcelle Joseph Projects, Ascot (2017); ‘Herland’, Bosse & Baum, Londra (2017); ‘In Dark Times’, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester (2017); ‘You Were High When I Was Doomed’, IMT Gallery, Londra (2017); e ‘Sell Yourself’, Patrick Studios, Leeds (2017).
Florence Peake è un'artista londinese che lavora dal 1995. La sua pratica di performance si basa su disegno, pittura e scultura combinati con oggetti trovati e fabbricati messi in relazione con il corpo in movimento. Sito e pubblico, testo dal vivo e registrato, arguzia e candore sono le chiavi del suo lavoro, che è stato presentato a livello internazionale e in tutto il Regno Unito. Ha ricevuto il Jerwood Choreographic Research Award nel 2016 e realizza lavori di performance da solista e di gruppo intrecciati con una vasta pratica di arti visive. Una selezione di mostre recenti include: ‘Apparition Apparition’ (con Eve Stainton) in ‘Meetings on Art’, 58° Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte della Biennale di Venezia
(2019); ‘Empathy Hole’, Bosse and Baum, Londra (2019); ‘RITE: On This Pliant Body We Slip Our Wow!’, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, Regno Unito (2018); ‘DO DISTURB Festival’, Palais de Tokyo, Parigi, Francia (2018); ‘Andromedan Sad Girl’ (una mostra collaborativa con Tai Shani), Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, Regno Unito (2017), ‘RITE’, Studio Leigh, Londra (2017), ‘We perform I am in love with my body’, Bosse and Baum, Londra (2017); ‘Walled Gardens in an Insane Eden’, Sara Zanin Gallery, Roma (2017); ‘The Keeners’, SPACE, Londra (2016); ‘Voicings’, Serpentine Gallery Offsite Project, Londra (2016); ‘Lay me down’, NoTT Dance Festival, Nottingham, Regno Unito e Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, Regno Unito (2015); ‘Swell the Thickening Surface of’, Hayward Gallery, Londra (2014); ‘MAKE’, BALTIC, Gateshead, Regno Unito (2013) e Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire, Regno Unito (2012); ‘REMAKE’, Baltic 39, Gateshead, Regno Unito (2012) e Lanchester Gallery, Coventry, Regno Unito (2012); e ‘Paper Portraits’, National Portrait Gallery, Londra (2010).
Paloma Proudfoot (1992, Londra, Regno Unito) è un artista londinese che ha conseguito un Master in Scultura al Royal College of Art di Londra nel 2017 dopo aver studiato all'Edinburgh College of Art. La pratica di Proudfoot include una varietà di media, che vanno dalla scultura alla performance. Tessuto e materia organica, come l'argilla, sono materiali comuni che compaiono nel suo corpus di lavori, apparentemente giocosi ma che allo stesso tempo riflettono e approfondiscono argomenti contemporanei propri della sua generazione. Oltre alla pratica scultorea solista, Proudfoot è condirettore del gruppo performativo Stasis e co-fondatore della piattaforma Proudick, che è contemporaneamente un collettivo di artisti, uno spazio di progetto e un luogo per lo scambio di idee e l'apprendimento della ceramica. Le mostre personali e come duo artistico includono: ‘CURING’, Sans Titre, Parigi (2019); ‘A History of Scissors’, Soy Capitan, Berlino (2019); ‘A Quick Descent’ Art Berlin Fair con Soy Capitan, Berlino (2018); ‘The Detachable Head Serves as a Cup’, Cob Gallery, Londra (2018); ‘PROUDICK’ (con Lindsey Mendick), Hannah Barry Gallery, Londra (2018); ‘The Clean Carcass of the Host’ (con George Rouy per Condo Mexico), Marso Galeria, Mexico City (2018); ‘The Thinking Business’ (con Rebecca Ounstead), The Royal Standard, Liverpool (2017); e ‘There’s One Missing From Your Bunch’, May Projects, Londra (2016). Le mostre collettive selezionate includono: ‘Cet élixir’, Moly Sabata, Sablons, Francia (2019); ‘SM’, Sans Titre, Marsiglia (2018); ‘Something Else’, Triumph Gallery, Mosca (2018); ‘Rhapsodies’, Ping Pong, Bruxelles (2018); ‘Becoming Plant’, Tenderpixel, Londra (2018); ‘Towards a Theory of Powerful Things’, Rod Barton, Londra (2018); ‘Chambre Dix’, Sans Titre, Parigi (2018); ‘Terra’, Lamb Arts, Londra (2018); ‘Ripe’, Kingsgate Workshops, Londra (2018); ‘If You Can’t Stand the Heat’, Roaming Projects, Londra (2018); ‘Doing it in Public’, Beaconsfield Gallery, Londra (2017); and ‘Herland’, Bosse and Baum, Londra (2017). Proudfoot ha partecipato alla Thun Ceramic Residency (2018), alla Moly Sabata – Albert Gleizes Foundation Residency (2019) e all’Irish Museum of Modern Art Residency (con il suo collettivo, Stasis).
Megan Rooney (1985, Canada) è un'artista canadese con base a Londra che ha completato il suo Master in Belle Arti presso il Goldsmiths College di Londra nel 2011 dopo aver conseguito la laurea presso l'Università di Toronto in Canada ed essere cresciuta tra Sudafrica, Brasile e Canada. Rooney lavora su una varietà di media, tra cui pittura, scultura, installazione, performance e linguaggio. Con uno stile inconfondibile, l’artista sviluppa narrazioni enigmatiche e sempre intense. Trae i soggetti delle sue opere direttamente dalla sua vita personale e dall’ambiente che la circonda. Queste ispirazioni sono fantasiose e, in alcuni casi, esperienze quotidiane grottesche, a volte sono invece osservazioni umoristiche, che per prima cosa "annota" come disegni. Un elemento ricorrente nel lavoro di Rooney è il corpo umano, che può essere visto come il punto di partenza soggettivo e il "luogo" finale di sedimentazione per tutte queste esperienze. Rooney ha in programma mostre personali nel 2020 al Salzburger Kunstverein, Salisburgo, Austria; Drei, Colonia, Germania; e Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto. Le mostre personali recenti includono quelle presso SALTS, Basilea (2019); Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf (2019); Drei, Colonia (2018); Tramway, Glasgow (2017); Cordova, Vienna (2017); Freymond Guth Fine Arts, Basilea (2017); Division Gallery, Toronto (2017); Seventeen, Londra (2016); ae Croy Nielsen, Berlino (2016). Le mostre collettive recenti includono: 15° Biennale di Lione, Francia (2019); ‘Paint, also known as Blood’, Museum of Modern Art, Varsavia, Polonia (2019); ‘Childhood. Another Banana Day for the Perfect Fish’,Palais de Tokyo, Parigi (2018); e ‘(X) A Fantasy’, David Roberts Art Foundation, Londra (2017). Le recenti performance includono: ‘Everywhere Been There, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germania (2019); ‘Sun Down Moon Up’, Park Nights 2018, Serpentine Gallery, Londra (2018); ‘Others got wings for flying’, Tramway, Glasgow (2017); ‘Poor Memory, Without Poetry Nothing is Possible’, Biennale di Venezia, Salon Suisse, Venezia (2017); ‘f on your tongue’, Project 1049, LUMA Foundation, Glacier 3000 Tissot Peak Walk, Gstaad, Svizzera (2016); ‘Last Days. Last Days. Last Days’, Serpentine Galleries, Londra (2015); e ‘Poetry Sets’, Cell Project Space, Londra (2015).
Eve Stainton è un'artista del movimento ispirata alla complessità degli incontri queer, non codificabili e poetici. Ciò si manifesta attraverso pratiche di danza / collage digitale / connessione con la comunità / bordi inclinati. I suoi approcci al movimento sono informati da filosofie somatiche e favoriscono trame fantasiose rispetto a forme prescritte stratificate sul corpo. La pratica di Stainton prende spesso la forma di collaborazioni intime che esplorano il desiderio e la vulnerabilità come una tecnologia o forza contro costrutti normativi restrittivi. Dal 2016, Stainton collabora anche con l'artista Florence Peake, con il loro ultimo lavoro "Apparition Apparition" commissionato per la Biennale di Venezia del 2019. Alcune altre presentazioni importanti includono: Nottingham Contemporary (2019), Sadler’s Wells Lilian Baylis Theatre (2019), The Place Theatre, Londra (2018), Royal Academy of Art, Londra (2018), Tangente Theatre Montreal, Canada (2017), Siobhan Davies Dance, Londra (2018), Hayward 50th Anniversary event, Londra (2018), PS/Y’s ‘Hysteria’ programme, Londra (2018), e Adelaide Fringe, Australia (2017). Stainton è stata anche performer per i seguenti artisti: Anthea Hamilton alla Tate Britain, Londra (2018); Last Yearz Interesting Negro/Jamila Johnson-Small at the ICA, Londra (2017); e Compagnie ECO’s international tour (2016-17) ed è anche stata modella freelance nel settore della moda e commerciale per Vivienne Westwood, Dior, Londra / Parigi / Shanghai Fashion Week, Goldfrapp e Holly Blakey. Stainton conduce anche seminari sul movimento, recentemente alla Tate Britain come parte di "Queer & Now", usando la fantasia e il tatto come un modo per sperimentare il concetto di fiducia, il potere e la proprietà condivisi del corpo per far esplodere ed esporre il potenziale queer. Il curatore Marcelle Joseph è una curatrice e collezionista indipendente americana con sede a Londra. Nel 2011 Joseph ha fondato Marcelle Joseph Projects, una piattaforma nomade curatoriale che ha prodotto 36 mostre nel Regno Unito e nel resto d'Europa, con il lavoro di oltre 200 artisti internazionali. Il suo settore di competenza riguarda soprattutto giovani artisti del Regno Unito, in particolare artisti di identificazione femminile e non binari, e ha una specializzazione accademica nella pratica dell'arte femminista dopo aver completato un Master in Storia dell'Arte con lode presso Birkbeck, Università di Londra. Nel 2013 è stata curatrice esecutiva di Korean Art: The Power of Now (Thames & Hudson), un'indagine sulla scena artistica contemporanea in Corea del Sud. Inoltre, Joseph è fiduciaria della Matt's Gallery di Londra e ha prestato servizio nella giuria del Max Mara Art Prize for Women 2017-2019, in collaborazione con la Whitechapel Gallery, la Collezione Maramotti e il Mother Art Prize 2018. Colleziona anche opere di artisti di identificazione femminile nell'ambito della partnership collettiva la Collezione GIRLPOWER, e più in generale come parte della Collezione Marcelle Joseph. Per tutto il 2020, Joseph fungerà da consulente curatoriale per Lychee One, una galleria commerciale situata nella zona est di Londra. Curerà la sua prima mostra museale all'ICA LA di Los Angeles nel luglio 2020.