Jimmie Durham
Building a Nation
1 November-17 December 2006
Events:
Talking while working with the artist
Each Saturday during October,
2.30 4.30pm
Matts Gallery
42-44 Copperfield Road,
London E3 4RR
T 00 44 (0)20 8983 1771
F 00 44 (0)20 8983 1435
www.mattsgallery.org
Opening hours during exhibition:
Wednesday Sunday, 12 6pm
Admission free
Jimmie Durham first showed at Matts Gallery in 1988. Almost twenty years on, Durham will return to the Gallery this autumn to present a series of intimate performance events leading to a large-scale sculptural installation.
Durham has described the role of the artist as one who rearranges objects that exist in society. In Building a Nation, Durham will construct an installation using natural and manufactured materials combining wood, laminates, glass and metal. Quotations selected by Durham from famous Americans about American Indians will be interspersed around the structure.
Each week during the installation, Durham will make a performance / presentation as he is working, revealing the progress of the structure and sharing ideas. These presentations will be conducted by Durham in the interchangeable guises of carpenter, craftsman and teacher.
Since moving to Europe from Mexico in 1994, Durham has concentrated on the problems of belief and monumentalism in art and has worked against architecture. Durham has said, Now we can begin, it seems to me, to be more seriously confused, to be more profoundly confused than we were before, especially if we can make a final break within the heroic project of art and architecture.
Jimmie Durham works primarily in sculpture, his career has spanned theatre, performance, literature, poetry and visual art. Durham is active in politics and has played a crucial part in the American Indian Movement in the US since the 1970s. His work has been exhibited widely at venues including the Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels; DAAD Gallery, Berlin; Document XI, Kassel; Hamburg Kunstverein; the Whitney Biennial, New York; Kunstverein Munich and the Venice Biennale amongst others. Phaidon produced a comprehensive survey of his work in 1995.
Matts Gallery was founded by Robin Klassnik in 1979 and operates as a not-for-profit publicly funded gallery.
Artists shown at Matts Gallery include: Sue Arrowsmith | Elisabeth Ballet | Jordan Baseman | Anne Bean | Tony Bevan | Edgar Heap of Birds | John Blake | Ian Breakwell | Jo Bruton | Victor Burgin | Brian Catling | Tom Clark | Hannah Collins | Melanie Counsell | Fiona Crisp | Juan Cruz | Xenia K. Dieroff | Willie Doherty | Sean Dower | Jimmie Durham | Till Exit | Graham Fagen | Joel Fisher | John Frankland | Nat Goodden | Richard Grayson | Lucy Gunning | Gerard Hemsworth | Susan Hiller | Thomas Holley | Nan Hoover | Jeff Instone | Melanie Jackson | Robert Janz | Rose Finn-Kelcey | Robin Klassnik | Jaroslaw Kozlowski | Hanna Luczak | Ian McKeever | Nathaniel Mellors | Mike Nelson | Avis Newman | Gerald Newman | Hayley Newman | David Osbaldeston | Tomasz Osinski | Gail Pickering | Michael Porter | Helen Robertson | Gary Stevens | Imogen Stidworthy | Kate Smith | Matthew Tickle | Imants Tillers | Amikam Toren | David Troostwyk | Alison Turnbull | Phillip Warnell | Carl von Weiler | Anthony Wilson | Richard Wilson |
Current and forthcoming Publications:
Anne Bean monograph ‘Autobituary’ with texts by Guy Brett, Sally O’Reilly and Miria Swain
Lucy Gunning monograph with texts by Michael Archer, Penelope Curtis and Rachel Withers
Matts Gallery is supported by Arts Council England, London.
The Daily Telegraph is media sponsor of Matts Gallery.
Building a Nation is supported by The Elephant Trust, Henry Moore Foundation and Moose Foundation for the Arts and is sponsored by Pergo and Formica Ltd.