Roman Ondák
Time Capsule
12 March–20 May 2011
Modern Art Oxford
30 Pembroke Street
Oxford OX1 1BP
T 01865 722733
info [at] modernartoxford.org.uk.
Roman Ondák’s work has a conceptual and performative focus and at its core, an interest in transferring real life experiences into the context of art. For the exhibition Time Capsule, Ondák expands on this trajectory with the creation of two new works that reference recent world events. The first work, an installation entitled Time Capsule, makes direct reference to the incident at the San José mine in Chile in 2010, in which 33 miners were trapped 700 metres below ground for 69 days. The miners were in the end raised from the mine through a drilled escape shaft and by the use of the rescue capsule called Fenix 2. Ondák has created an exact replica of the capsule, which will be installed in the darkened gallery and connected by a rope to an escape shaft attached to the gallery’s ceiling. Where Time Capsule evokes the isolation experienced in the mine, the performance Stampede—its counterpoint executed in the second gallery—touches on the other extreme, when people experience overcrowded situations. For this work, Ondák stages a performance involving a large crowd of people walking into and out of the darkened gallery prior to the exhibition. The traces of the performance will be then left evident.
Supported by The Henry Moore Foundation and Outset Associates.
Michael Sailstorfer
Clouds
12 March – 22 May 2011
Modern Art Oxford hosts recent work by Michael Sailstorfer in his first solo presentation in the UK. Sailstorfer’s project is the latest in a series for The Yard space at the Gallery.
Through the transformation of everyday objects and materials, Sailstorfer creates sculptural interventions, both in the gallery space and the public realm. His work often explores movement, displacement and flight, and is infused with a poetic and humorous sensibility. Deconstruction and dispersal are common in his process of making. Past pieces have included dismantling and reconstructing a glider plane to build a tree house (D-IBRB, 2002), re-shaping a German police van as a drum kit (Schlagzeug, 2003), and using explosives to propel a fruit tree into the air (Raketenbaum, 2008).
For The Yard space Sailstorfer will present a new version of recent work Wolken (Clouds) (2010). Large industrial tyre inner tubes of different sizes are inflated, twisted and bunched to create a cluster of simple, ‘cartoonish’ black rubber forms. These will be suspended across the ceiling of The Yard, intervening in the architecture through a play with form, weight and volume.
TALKS
Saturday 12 March, 2pm
Roman Ondák in conversation with Michael Stanley, Director of Modern Art Oxford. Booking essential.
Thursday 14 April, 7pm
Michael Sailstorfer in conversation with Martin Germann, Curator, kestnergesellschaft, Hanover. Booking essential.
See www.modernartoxford.org.uk for a full list of talks, performances and artist selected screenings.
Modern Art Oxford, 30 Pembroke Street, Oxford OX1 1BP. Tel. +44 (0)1865 722733. E-mail: info@modernartoxford.org.uk. www.modernartoxford.org.uk
Open Tuesday & Wednesday 10am – 5pm, Thursday to Saturday 10am – 10pm, galleries until 7pm, Sunday 12pm to 5pm, closed Mondays.
Admission Free.
