Michael Rakowitz @ Whitechapel Gallery, London

Michael Rakowitz
Whitechapel Gallery, London
4 June 2019 – 25 August 2019 

Enthralling environments tell gripping tales that haunt buildings and objects, revealing the utopian aspirations and the disasters of modern times, in this debut survey of internationally renowned Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz (b.1973).

Premiering Michael Rakowitz’s most important projects from two decades, eight multifaceted installations draw on architecture, cultural artefacts, cuisine and geopolitics from 750BC to today. Whitechapel Gallery’s headline exhibition for summer 2019 coincides with the display in London of the artist’s Lamassu sculpture for the Fourth Plinth, part of his epic and ongoing attempt to recreate every cultural artefact lost or destroyed during the Iraq war.

Iwona Blazwick, Director, Whitechapel Gallery and co-curator of the exhibition, says: “From the Assyrian winged bull he placed in Trafalgar Square to the stone books he had carved from the ruins of Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Buddhas, sculptor, detective and some time cook Michael Rakowitz turns the disasters of war into beacons of knowledge and hope.”

Rhythmically rising and falling, an inflatable tower block opens the exhibition. Dull Roar (2005) is based on the 1950s American Pruitt-Igoe housing complex. Built to give people ‘sun, space and greenery’, it descended into a racially segregated conflict zone and was later detonated, the rubble carted off for use as landfill for luxury homes. Opposite stands a model of Vladimir Tatlin’s unrealised utopian tower. White man got no dreaming (2008) was made in collaboration with an Aboriginal community in Sydney whose dwellings had been condemned, using materials from their crumbling homes. The project was part of a successful campaign for new housing and typifies the interaction with communities at the heart of Michael Rakowitz’s work.

Creativity from destruction characterises the emotionally charged installation What dust will rise? (2012). Working with artisans in Afghanistan, Michael Rakowitz carved stone books from the ruins of the Bamiyan Buddhas, two 6th century monumental statues destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 to global outcry. Each sculptural volume is informed by, and a monument to, books destroyed in World War II.

An ardent Beatles fan, Michael Rakowitz discovered their last concerts were to be in the Arab World. In The Breakup (2010 – ongoing) he presents Beatles band ephemera to superimpose the story of their break up over the Arab-Israeli conflict and the collapse of Pan-Arabism.

Floating across the floor and walls nearby is a flotilla of plaster casts and rubbings taken from the Art Nouveau facades of 1900s Istanbul. The flesh is yours, the bones are ours (2015) pays tribute to the artistry of Istanbul’s Armenian craftsmen who shaped the city’s facades but suffered persecution and exile.

Life-sized recreations of mural reliefs formerly located at the Northwest Palace of Nimrud and destroyed by ISIS in 2015 are included amongst other objects created over the course of a decade for ongoing project, The invisible enemy should not exist (2007 – ongoing). In the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq thousands of archaeological artefacts were stolen or destroyed. Michael Rakowitz remakes them from packaging such as date syrup cans, fusing pragmatism with poetry to illuminate lost histories.  This use of material references the way war and sanctions have decimated the date industry in Iraq, once a lucrative export second only to oil. To coincide with the exhibition A House With A Date Palm Will Never Starve, a cookbook of date syrup recipes contributed by international chefs including Yotam Ottolenghi, Anna Jones, Claudia Roden, Anissa Helou, Nawal Nasrallah, Phillip Juma and Alice Waters is published by Plinth and Art Books.

The exhibition culminates with The Visionaries. In 2006 the artist quizzed the citizens of post-Soviet Budapest about how they would fill the many derelict building sites that dot their city ‘like missing teeth’. Their visionary architecture is displayed as if floating in mid-air, ending the exhibition with a collectively envisioned future.

The exhibition is organized in collaboration with Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli – Torin.

Curated by Iwona Blazwick and Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, together with Habda Rashid at Whitechapel Gallery and Marianna Vecellio at Castello di Rivoli.

Michael Rakowitz

Edited by Carolyn Christov-Barkargiev and Marianna Vecellio. 

A co-publication between Whitechapel Gallery, Castello di Rivoli 

and Silvana Editoriale

Hardback, 224 pages, 280 x 240 mm, 160 colour illustrations

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated publication with a survey by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, an interview with Michael Rakowitz by Iwona Blazwick alongside essays by Habda Rashid, Nora Razian, Ella Shohat and Marianna Vecellio. The book includes a definitive exhibition history and anthology of key texts on the artist.

WHITECHAPEL GALLERY
77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX
whitechapelgallery.org

Mark Dion @ Whitechapel Gallery, London

Mark Dion
Whitechapel Gallery, London
14 February - 13 May 2018

The Whitechapel Gallery presents a major solo exhibition of American artist MARK DION, with large-scale installations made between the 1990s to the present, including a new commission created especially for London. Each installation draws attention to characters that observe, conserve or exploit the natural world.

Mark Dion (b. 1961) approaches art by shadowing scientific enquiry, engaging in fieldwork, expeditions and experiments. Performing the role of scientist, explorer, museum curator and archeologist, Dion examines how knowledge is gathered, interpreted, classified and presented. His research and collections come together as elaborate installations, which combine artefacts, material culture, photographs and documents. His work raises questions concerning the culture of nature and the environment – such as how nature can exist in urban space but also how it is managed and controlled.

Curated by Whitechapel Gallery Director, Iwona Blazwick, Mark Dion begins with a new commission by the artist, to be unveiled in February 2018. Alongside this is a series of Hunting Blinds (2008), inspired by structures used to disguise hunters in the wild. Each is characterised by the personality of an imagined inhabitant, from the glutton or the dandy rococo to the librarian. Viewers are invited to examine the belongings and attributes of their absent owners. The librarian’s hunting blind is well-equipped with shelves full of books, a small armchair and equipment hanging neatly on the walls; while the Dandy delights in the decorative potential of natural objects and curios. In an exploration of hunting as a traditional, but contentious, cultural practice, wall-mounted felt banners made in the style of medieval heraldic standards depicting animals, such as the fox, bear and stag, accompany the installation.

A naturalist’s study, decorated with wallpaper designed by the artist then leads the viewer indoors and into the 19th century.  The clues and symbols pictured in photographs, intricate drawings, prints and models may look historic, but they touch on environmental issues of our time.

The exhibition continues with the Bureau for the Centre of the Study for Surrealism and its Legacy, a recreation of a 1920s curator’s office filled with evocative objects, artefacts and specimens from ancient and modern culture. Inspired by Mark Dion’s interactions during a residency at Manchester Museum in 2002, the installation serves as a repository for neglected and unclassifiable objects ranging from photographs to intricate drawings, prints and models. According to the artist this work is designed to “provide a fitting setting for the contemplation and study of Surrealism.”

Tate Thames Dig (1998-2000) is presented in the final rooms as an iconic example of Mark Dion’s participatory practice. During the summer of 1998, two years before the launch of Tate Modern in 2000, teenagers, retirees, artists and historians mudlarked on the foreshores of Millbank and Bankside for artefacts at low tide. Led by Dion’s archaeological approach, they unearthed clay pipes, plastic toys, credit cards and animal bones that have been transformed into this poetic display. Documentary photographs of the beachcombers and tidal flow charts are also exhibited. By combining historic and contemporary finds, the work presents a slice of London’s material history over the centuries.

MARK DION: Biography

Mark Dion was born in 1961 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, US and lives in New York with his wife and frequent collaborator Dana Sherwood. He studied at the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, Connecticut (1981-82), which awarded him a BFA in 1986 and an honorary doctorate in 2002. From 1983 to 1984 he attended the School of Visual Arts in New York and then completed the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program (1984-85). He is an Honorary Fellow of Falmouth University, UK (2014) and has an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (Ph.D.) from The Wagner Free Institute of Science in Philadelphia (2015). Dion has received numerous awards, including the ninth annual Larry Aldrich Foundation Award (2001); The Joan Mitchell Foundation Award (2007) and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Lucida Art Award (2008).  He has had major exhibitions at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2017); Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paris (2016); Natural History Museum, London (2007); Miami Art Museum, Miami (2006); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2004); Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2003) and Tate Gallery, London (1999). For over two decades Dion has worked in the public realm in a wide range of scales, from architecture projects to print interventions in newspapers. Some of his most recent large-scale public projects include David Fairchild’s Laboratory, a permanent installation commissioned for The Kampong, National Tropical Botanical Garden, Coconut Grove, FL (2016); Den, a permanent installation commissioned for the Norway National Tourist Route (2012) and Neukom Vivarium, a permanent outdoor installation and learning lab for the Olympic Sculpture Park commissioned by the Seattle Art Museum (2006); Dion has also produced large-scale permanent commissions for Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany and the Montevideo Biennale in Uruguay (both 2012). His work is held in the collections of Centre George Pompidou, Paris; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts; The New York Public Library, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York and Tate, London. Dion is co-director of Mildred’s Lane, an innovative visual art education and residency program in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania.

Curators

Exhibition curated by Iwona Blazwick, Director, Whitechapel Gallery with Candy Stobbs, Assistant Curator, Whitechapel Gallery.

Publication

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated publication including an interview between Iwona Blazwick, Director, Whitechapel Gallery and Mark Dion and contributions from Petra Lange-Berndt, Chair of Modern and Contemporary Art, University of Hamburg and Gilda Williams, art critic and lecturer at Goldsmiths College, University of London

Whitechapel Gallery
77-82 Whitechapel High St
London E1 7QX
www.whitechapelgallery.org

Alicja Kwade @ Whitechapel Gallery, London

Alicja Kwade: Whitechapel Commission
Whitechapel Gallery, London
28 September 2016 – 25 June 2017

For Alicja Kwade’s (b. 1979) first project for a major UK gallery, unveiled on Wednesday 28 September, the Berlin-based artist creates a captivating installation of astronomical data and our position in the universe.

Bronze casts of giant vertebrae stand at either side of the gallery accompanying a projection depicting a slowly rotating, biomorphic form. The film is inspired by NASA data of extrasolar meteors, referencing the cataclysmic event believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. At the centre of the work and gallery, a large mobile of 24 electronic star maps is suspended from the gallery ceiling, slowly rotating in concentric circles, visualising astronomical data that demonstrates the earth’s position in the known galaxy.

Daniel F. Hermann, Eisler Curator and Head of Curatorial Studies said: “Since 2005, artist commissions have been a core part of the Whitechapel Gallery’s programme that provides a vital forum for the development of artists’ practice. Alicja Kwade’s work represents some of the most interesting developments in sculpture today – with meticulous attention to detail and a sincere appreciation for craftsmanship and quality of materials, her work emphasises the skill that is necessary to give artistic form to philosophical inquiry. We’re delighted to premier her work to the UK audience this autumn.”

Alicja Kwade said: “Material objects are events in time. I am interested in understanding how time operates and how we, in our own lifespan, are also part of these occurring events.”

Alicja Kwade’s sculptures often defy the conventional understanding of time and space: concrete columns melt in the sun, bicycles bend around themselves and everyday objects seem to take on a life of their own. From manipulating the mechanical workings of a clock, to creating liquid pools of mirrored glass, Kwade transforms common materials into extraordinary artworks that challenge our perceptions. Her diverse sculptures are inspired by the intangible ways we try to make sense of the modern world, from theories of astrophysics to stock market analysis.

Alicja Kwade’s new Commission is on display until 23 November in Gallery 2, a dedicated space for site-specific works of art until 25 June 2017.

WHITECHAPEL GALLERY
www.whitechapelgallery.org

Electronic Superhighway (2016 - 1966) @ Whitechapel Gallery, London

Electronic Superhighway (2016 - 1966)

Whitechapel Gallery, London

29 January - 15 May 2016

In January 2016 the Whitechapel Gallery presents Electronic Superhighway, a landmark exhibition that brings together over 100 artworks to show the impact of computer and Internet technologies on artists from the mid-1960s to the present day.

New and rarely seen multimedia works, together with film, painting, sculpture, photography and drawing  by over 70 artists feature, including works by Cory Arcangel, Roy Ascott, Jeremy Bailey, Judith Barry, James Bridle, Douglas Coupland, Constant Dullaart, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Vera Molnar, Albert Oehlen, Trevor Paglen, Nam June Paik, Jon Rafman, Hito Steyerl, Ryan Trecartin, Amalia Ulman and Ulla Wiggen.

The exhibition title Electronic Superhighway is taken from a term coined in 1974 by South Korean video art pioneer Nam June Paik, who foresaw the potential of global connections through technology. Arranged in reverse chronological order, Electronic Superhighway begins with works made between 2000 – 2016, and ends with Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T), an iconic, artistic moment that took place in 1966. Spanning 50 years, from 2016 to 1966, key moments in the history of art and the Internet emerge as the exhibition travels back in time.

As the exhibition illustrates, the Internet has provided material for different generations of artists. Oliver Laric’s painting series Versions (Missile Variations) (2010) reflects on issues surrounding digital image manipulation, production, authenticity and circulation.  Further highlights include a series of photographs from conceptual artist Amalia Ulman’s four-month Instagram project Excellences & Perfections (2014-2015), which examines the influence of social media on attitudes towards the female body. Miniature paintings by Celia Hempton painted live in chatrooms go on display alongside a large scale digital painting by Albert Oehlen and manipulated camera-less photography by Thomas Ruff.

The dot-com boom, from the late 1990s to early millennium, is examined through work from international artists and collectives such as The Yes Men who combined art and online activism in response to the rapid commercialisation of the web.

Works by Nam June Paik in the exhibition include Internet Dreams (1994), a video-wall of 52 monitors displaying electronically-processed abstract images, and Good Morning, Mr. Orwell (1984). On New Year’s Day 1984 Paik broadcast live and pre-recorded material from artists including John Cage and The Thompson Twins from a series of satellite-linked television studios in New York, West Germany, South Korea and Paris’ Pompidou Centre to an estimated audience of 25 million viewers worldwide. Paik saw the event as a counter response to George Orwell’s’s dystopian vision of 1984.

The birth of the World Wide Web in 1989 provided a breeding ground for early user-based net art, with innovators such as Moscow-born Olia Lialina adopting the Internet as a medium, following earlier practices in performance and video. In My Boyfriend Came Back from the War (1996) the artist presents a love story enacted via an interactive black and white browser screen.

The emergence of net art is explored through a curated selection of interactive browser-based works from the Rhizome archive, a leading digital arts organisation founded online in 1996 by artist Mark Tribe, and affiliated with the New Museum in New York since 2003. In 1999, Rhizome created a collection of born-digital artworks which has grown to include over 2000 and in recent years, it has developed a preservation programme around this archive.

One of the first ever major interactive art installations, Lorna (1979-1982) by Lynn Hershman Leeson presents a fictional female character who stays indoors all day watching TV and anticipated virtual avatars. Also on show is Judith Barry’s video installation Speed flesh (1998), which lures viewers into an interactive computer-generated world.

A proliferation of experiments from the 1960s – 70s pushed the boundaries of technology. Artists such as Manfred Mohr, Vera Molnar, Frieder Nake and Stan VanDerBeek adopted computer programmes to create abstract and geometrical works while Roy Ascott, Allan Kaprow, Gary Hill and Nam June Paik used various new media to connect across multiple sites globally.

The exhibition concludes with artefacts from the formation of Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T) in New York in 1966 which saw performances over nine evenings from artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage and Yvonne Rainer working together with engineers from American engineering company Bell Laboratories in one of the first major collaborations between the industrial technology sector and the arts.

To coincide with Electronic Superhighway a series of related special projects/displays, commissions and special events include:

Harun Farocki – Parallel I–IV  (2012–4)

15 December 2015 – 12 June 2016 (Free Entry)

German avant-garde film-maker Harun Farocki’s major video installation Parallel I-IV (2012-2014), the artist’s final work, is shown in Gallery 2. In this display, Farocki charts the evolution of computer game graphics – from the earliest simple, symbolic forms, through thirty years of rapid technological progression to the realism of the present day. Projected on four screens, each video focuses on different aspects of the video game genre.

Luke Fowler and Mark Fell: Computers and Cooperative Music-Making

Until 7 February 2016 (Free Entry)

Glasgow-based artist film-maker Luke Fowler and Yorkshire-based multidisciplinary artist Mark Fell collaborate on a new exhibition exploring technological advancements in music history. Focussing on two historic computer music languages that have been obscured by more commercially viable options, the duo look at how computers began to impact and shape music making, while experimenting with unfamiliar techniques involving algorithms, non-standard timing and tuning tables.

Heather Phillipson

12 February – 17 April 2016 (Free Entry)

Artist and award-winning poet Heather Phillipson creates a new installation for the project galleries, expanding on her time as the Gallery’s Writer in Residence in 2015. Through video, music, sculpture and live and recorded speech, Phillipson’s work oscillates between conceptual distances and the intimacy of the body.

Artists’ Film International: Rachel Maclean

29 January – 29 May 2016 (Free Entry)

Artists’ Film International, the Whitechapel Gallery’s annual programme of film, video and animation chosen by partner cultural organisations around the world, is based on the theme of ‘technologies’ in 2016. Highlights include Scottish artist Rachel Maclean’s Germs (2013), a dark and surreal take on female-targeted advertising, which runs from 28 January 2016.

For more information on events and displays visit www.whitechapelgallery.org