Reynold Reynolds
Six Pieces
3–29 September 2011
West
Groenewegje 136
2515 LR, Den Haag
The Netherlands
+31 (0)70 392 53 59
info [at] west-denhaag.nl
www.west-denhaag.nl
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West is proud to present American artist Reynold Reynolds‘ first solo exhibition in the Netherlands. Six Pieces is an exhibition in which Reynolds explores various aspects of human existence, using his experimental films and installations. Due to the enthralling aesthetics, which are both cool and sensual, his work is strikingly impressive. The abundantly detailed set in which he works, forms the basis for his powerful visual expressive language. Reynolds brings frozen goldfish to life, lets walls move, and makes plants grow visibly. An environment in which the daily routine of human beings seems poetic, until chaos and drama take over everyday life. Serious topics such as isolation, loneliness and insecurity are portrayed in an uncommonly beautiful, surrealistic style that keep you riveted.
The work ‘The Last News‘ (2002, in cooperation with Christoph Draeger) is again a topical comment on the, due to 9/11, changing society. The fictitious presenter Guy Smith of MSNBC, the 24 Hour Disaster and Survival Network, provides a hectic commentary of subsequently the bombing of the Big Ben, a terrorist attack on the Chrysler Building, extraterrestrials that make the White House disappear, and a nuclear bomb dropped on Paris. All the disasters are interspersed with short, ridiculous interviews with ‘experts’ and the panic-stricken host in search of viewers. The stage-managed television installation is an extreme parody of the media, whereby ratings and avarice lead to a dangerous combination of sensationalism and loss of control.
Combined with the installation ‘Seven Days Til Sunday‘ (1998, in cooperation with Patrick Jolley), Reynolds leaves the observers totally confused, exactly 10 years after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre. Do we have influence on the news and has the world changed since 9/11?
In his surrealistic and highly imaginative ‘The Secrets Trilogy‘ Reynolds presents a considerably less nihilistic image. In the films ‘Secret Life‘ (2008), ‘Secret Machine‘ (2009) and ‘Six Easy Pieces‘ (2010) the artist uses for instance Stop motion: a technique with which movement is created by means of pictures that are placed in succession. In doing so, Reynolds shows in an aesthetic way that time is equal to movement and that ‘measuring-is-managing’ offers beauty. In this tripartite cycle he investigates the invisible necessities of life itself. The visibly breathing, sensing and dying girl-like principal character seems to be a timeless Madonna watching her thoughts come to life.
In ‘Six Apartments‘ (2007) we observe six people in various rooms; they play cards, watch TV, muse, smoke, sleep, eat, wash their feet and vomit. In this seemingly endless film that takes twelve and a half minutes, unexpected connections are made in all sort of ways. It is as if nothing is happening, but along the way everything is transforming. Loneliness is pressing and death is inescapable. This fatalistic film provides an enormous poetic power, which makes the decline bearable.
In his conceptual films, Reynolds combines philosophy, science and art history. The used, and partly self-developed, technique is a manner to gain control of the chaos; a way of understanding the world.
Reynold Reynolds (1966, Alaska, US) has recently had at solo exhibitions at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Lokal_30 Warsaw, Poland; Kunsthalle Vienna, Austria; Institut für Moderne Kunst Nürnberg and Galerie Zink, Munich. Reynolds has participated in various group exhibitions all over the world, such as the Chelsea Art Museum, New Museum and PS 1 in New York; Bass Museum of Art, Miami; Bienal de La Habana, Cuba; Berlinische Galerie and Kunst Werke in Berlin; Kunstverein Medienturm, Graz and 3rd Moscow Bienal of Contemporary Art. In addition, he has shown his works at dozens of film festivals, such as the Edinburgh Film Festival; International Film Festival Rotterdam; Impakt, Utrecht; Sundance Film Festival and NY Underground Film Festival. His work forms part of several collections, such as at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Tasmania, Australia; Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK); Ellipse Foundation, Alcoitão, Portugal and Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos (CAB), Burgos, Spain.
The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication with a text written by Jurriaan Benschop (writer and curator, Berlin). ISBN: 978-90-79917-17-4
For further information please contact the gallery.
