Xavier Veilhan
CEDAR
November 12–December 19, 2015
Opening: Thursday, November 12, 5–8pm
Andréhn-Schiptjenko
Hudiksvallsgatan 8, 2tr
113 30 Stockholm
Sweden
Andréhn-Schiptjenko has the pleasure of announcing Xavier Veilhan’s new solo exhibition, CEDAR, the artist’s seventh at the gallery.
A cut-up cedar tree trunk is aligned on both walls of the gallery space with geometrical and somehow chronological precision. Uninterrupted, the concentric timeline of the tree is transposed horizontally like an ancient neumatic music notation. This installation is strongly linked conceptually to much of Veilhan’s older work, presented always in reference to the decomposition of form, where image is a whole of multiple parts. We have seen it in light bulbs (Light Machines, 2001), pixels (Ghost Landscapes, 2002), slices (Blind Sculptures, 2006), discs (Cocardes, 2011), and in his various faceted sculptures.
When cutting a tree in a cross-sectional direction, as if slicing salami, we go against the functional logic of natural wood, rendering it more fragile. The result, however, is a distinctive reading of the tree: the trunk is systematically scanned, reminding us of a human MRI, or of the floors of a building in relation to its façade. This transversal approach generates a whole different relationship to the object and dissects it into an evolutive pallet. We are seeing time.
But it is not time that is Veilhan’s primary concern: it is distance. Keeping in mind the scientific discovery of relativity—the indissociable character of time and space—it is instead time and object that are intrinsic here: the object has grown and unfolds in an equivalent linear form. On this unperturbedly horizontal line, Veilhan explores the relationship between time and distance. Like a waterline, he somehow erases any relation to the floor and defines a new “level zero.”
Xavier Veilhan was born 1963, lives and works in Paris, and is one of his generation’s most important artists. His work is multifaceted: encompassing sculpture, installation, painting, and photography, as well as hybrids of all of these, he is also engaged in performance work and filmmaking. He plays with the notions of the generic, of the industrially produced object, and of universal representation, creating objects at once ambivalent and stark. Concerned with the scenography of a dedicated presentation, Veilhan addresses issues of perception as well as the physical and temporal relationships created within the context of the exhibition format.
Veilhan’s work is to be found in the most important public and private collections worldwide. He has made several permanent public works in numerous locations across the world—most recently, The Skater in Osan, South Korea, and Architectones (2012–), an ongoing project of artistic interventions in iconic architectural landmarks, which has received great critical acclaim.
For more information and images, please contact Ebba von Beetzen at ebba [at] andrehn-schiptjenko.com.