THE THE THINGS IS (FOR 3)

THE THE THINGS IS (FOR 3)
9 July – 12 September 2010

Preview 8 July, 6-10pm
All welcome
7pm BBQ, drinks, music
Coach from London available
Contact j.trotter@mk-g.org

900 Midsummer Boulevard
Milton Keynes
MK9 3QA

+44 (0) 1908 676 900
info@mk-g.org

www.mk-g.org

Milton Keynes Gallery presents a major solo exhibition of work by a London-based artist who emerged in the early 1990s, exhibiting with Gavin Brown at City Racing in London and collaborating with artists including Liam Gillick, Elizabeth Wright and Paul Noble. Working with sound, performance, collage and photography, the artist creates systems that playfully experiment with language, identity, geometry and chance.

In an early piece, Be Me, presented at Interim Art, London (1996), thirty-one friends and acquaintances were invited to assume the artist’s persona for the day and to exhibit the results. Went to America didn’t say a word (1999), is a sound recording of the artist’s journey to New York, where he stayed overnight and returned home, without uttering a word. Violin Siren (2004 – present) is an ongoing performance where street noises, such as police sirens, are transcribed onto classical musical instruments.

The exhibition at Milton Keynes Gallery contains several new installations, including WOMAN MAN MAN WOMAN WOMAN WOMAN MAN MAN 1975 GEORGE M. HESTER, (2010), where black and white images are placed on a light box to ‘dissolve’ the paper so that nude portraits of men and women on the back and front of the pages merge to create hermaphrodites.

Other work will combine performance, sculpture, objects and installation, inviting visitors literally to leave their mark: a denim carpet wrapped around the building records the footprints of visitors as they walk through the space and a fully functioning rock band’s equipment is set up, live, and ready to play. Each work opens up a space for the imagination, encouraging varying degrees of interaction and response, inviting the viewer into a playful dialogue with the artist.

For more information and an interview with the artist, click HERE

Catalogue
A publication, conceived by the artist, contains a text by art historian Gilda Williams and an interview between the artist and Milton Keynes Gallery Director Anthony Spira. Details from 6 July HERE.

In Conversation: The artist and Matt Hale
Thursday 22 July, 6.30-8pm, free
Join Matt Hale from Art Monthly and the exhibiting artist as they discuss the processes behind THE THE THINGS IS (FOR 3). Please book on +44 (0) 1908 676 900.

Generously supported by Rock Hard Music and the Exhibition Circle of Friends including Gagosian Gallery and those who wish to remain anonymous.

Milton Keynes Gallery receives core annual funding from Arts Council England and Milton Keynes Council.