Royal College of Art Galleries
Kensington Gore
London SW7 2EU
10am-6pm daily – Free Admission
CLOSED 5 & 6 April
http://www.cca.rca.ac.uk/varioussmallfires/
image: Ei Arakawa, Toward A Standard Risk Architecture, 2006
Performance view, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York
Courtesy of the artist
Ei Arakawa, Tony Chakar, Kajsa Dahlberg, Carmen Gheorghe, Knut Henrik Henriksen, Ian Kiaer, Koo Jeong-A, Laurent Montaron, Dominique Petitgand, Josephine Pryde, Florian Pumhösl
Organised by MA Curating Contemporary Art graduating students
Most of the artists in Various Small Fires were commissioned to produce works reflecting on physical and psychological space in response to the Royal College of Art galleries. These galleries exist in a perpetual state of flux, witnessing the constant making and un-making of exhibitions, but also function as a daily thoroughfare for staff and students. Various Small Fires uses the exhibition space as the material and the environment for a number of dialogues between ideas, architecture, artworks and visitors. Within this environment the works function individually and can also be clustered into constellations of small fires.
VARIOUS SMALL FIRES
Carmen Gheorghe Vaterland IX (2007), a floor-based work made from sand quartz, appropriates motifs from Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly, and Michel Majerus. These patterns are altered and the sand is dispersed as visitors interact with the piece.
Florian Pumhösl Programm (2006) is a film that reflects on the Casa Modernista, an icon of Brazilian Modernism, while also attempting to explore how images can be reconstructed and memorised.
Kajsa Dahlberg Ett Etget Rum/Tusen Bibliotek (A Room of One’s Own/A Thousand Libraries) (2006) is a series of drawings of the marginal notes made by readers onto library copies of Virgina Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929).
Ei Arakawa 1979 Pink Floyd as Reconstruction Mood (2007) is a performance involving a high-speed transformation that disrupts the gallery space and includes the production of an on-site magazine.
Laurent Montaron Craignez celle qui suit (1998/2007) is a film projected inside an inaccessible room filled with dust that causes the image to gradually deteriorate, highlighting the ephemeral nature of things.
Dominique Petitgand Proportions (1997/2007) plays with the ability of sound to permeate space, thereby influencing the path the viewer takes through the exhibition.
Tony Chakar Martyrs’ Square Revisited (2007) is an adaptation of earlier texts in which the written word conveys inhabited space and reflects on recent events in Beirut.
Josephine Pryde How Does It Feel to Play the Piano? (2007) is a series of photographs that attempts to provide a visual answer to the title’s question. The piano is an instrument that can offer uninhibited expression to a player but is also associated with a controlled and accomplished education.
Ian Kiaer Bruegel Project/Pink Bird (2007) consists of different objects including a monochrome painting, a crumpled tissue and a plastic bottle arranged into a composition, that draws the surrounding space into an open-ended landscape.
Koo Jeong-A Dreams & Thoughts (2007) discreetly introduces 30,000 sticks of unwrapped chewing gum into the gallery space. This everyday mass-produced material is used to investigate ignored spatial qualities and create a subtle perceptual readjustment.
Knut Henrik Henriksen Untitled (2007) is a wooden wall that runs the length of the gallery, following the soft curves of the banisters and the central window in a 40 metre-long wave.
EVENTS
Parallel Ensemble: A Momentary Companion to Various Small Fires
Film and video programme with guest speakers Mark Nash and Al Rees
17 March, 4-6pm
Lecture Theatre 1, Royal College of Art
1979 Pink Floyd as Reconstruction Mood
Performance by Ei Arakawa with Mari Mukai and students
22 March, 7pm
Royal College of Art Galleries
On Catastrophic Space: The Evacuation of Hope as Strategy
Tony Chakar in conversation with Eyal Weizman
3 April, 6pm
Goethe-Institut, 50 Princes Gate, Exhibition Road, London
Late opening of Various Small Fires until 10pm
