Joshua Leon: The Missing O and E

The Missing O and E is a new commission and first solo presentation by London-based artist, poet, and writer Joshua Leon. Leon’s text-led processes produce artworks and exhibitions that bind memoir with historical research. Spanning sculpture and sound, the installation traces a collapsing of personal memory and historical record to offer a nuanced exploration of Jewish life.

Three letters—C H N—are visible from nearby on Grove Road. Inlaid into the side of Chisenhale’s building in c. 1940, Leon’s exhibition tends to this sign, to reveal an otherwise ellipsed history. Two, possibly missing, letters—an O and an E—have been stained into the gallery’s windows. Like a form of annotation, the last name of the building’s former owner, Morris Cohen, is restored onto the building’s surface, returning a forgotten history to the site. 

Interpreting instances in which one’s name might be erased, transformed, or deliberately withdrawn, The Missing O and E recognises misnomers, codes, and ellipses as both socially imposed and politically intentional. Leon works with glass and veneer—the latter evoking the building’s history as a former veneer factory—to materially explore appearance and disappearance; asking what is at stake when a person, community, or history is hidden or made visible? Ten wall-mounted frames, constructed using veneer salvaged from the building’s manufacturing years, ask what’s in a name? Viewed through yellow stained glass, each contains a music programme detailing the gradual alteration of Leon’s own grandfather’s name—at times imposed, at others desired.

A single speaker emits the second violin part from Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, a composition played by Leon’s grandfather while in the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1950s. By isolating a single instrument, Leon amplifies one voice, otherwise concealed in the cacophony of the orchestra. Two ‘f’ shaped veneered benches evoke the holes on a violin; amplification devices that become support structures for listening. As the piece oscillates between sound and silence, visitors are invited to listen to which voices can and cannot be heard.

Leon's first publication, titled The Process, will be released in April 2024, co-published by Chisenhale Gallery and Mousse Publishing. 

Joshua Leon’s exhibition commences Chisenhale Gallery’s Commissions Programme for 2024–25, which includes exhibitions by Rory Pilgrim, Simnikiwe Buhlungu, and Bruno Zhu. Invitations to witness, gather, and gossip run through the programme, with material and temporal interrogations, built environments, and unscripted chance encounters pushing the boundaries of exhibition making. 

Talks and events
As part of the commissioning process, a programme of talks and events has been devised in collaboration with Joshua Leon, spanning the duration of the exhibition.

Tour
Saturday, March 9, 11–11:30am
A walkthrough of The Missing O and E with Assistant Curator Oscar Abdulla.

Conversation
Wednesday, March 13, 7–9pm
Joshua Leon and Abbas Zahedi facilitate an open conversation about artistic practice, an iteration of their collaborative project, Kounsel.

Crit
Tuesday, March 26, 7–9pm
Chisenhale alum Caragh Thuring joins Peer Sessions (artists Kate Pickering and Charlotte Warne Thomas), inviting you to share work-in-progress.

Music (offsite)
Wednesday, March 27, 7–8:30pm
Austrian Cultural Forum London, 28 Rutland Gate, SW7 1PQ.
An evening of music and poetry in partnership with Austrian Cultural Forum London.

Book launch
Thursday, April 4, 7–9pm
The launch of Leon’s publication, The Process. Featuring a conversation between Leon and the exhibition’s curators Olivia Aherne and Amy Jones.

Talk
Thursday, April 18, 7–9pm
Cultural historian Juliet Steyn responds to themes in The Missing O and E, followed by a conversation with Leon.

All events are free to attend, but booking is essential. Please visit chisenhale.eventbrite.co.uk.

We are committed to ensuring our events are accessible for all. Please contact mail@chisenhale.org.uk to discuss any access needs. We will endeavour to meet all requests where possible. Please be advised that requests should be made two weeks in advance of the event.

Biography
Joshua Leon is a writer, poet, and artist based in London. Selected exhibitions include: Itinéraire Fantôme, CAPC, Bordeaux (2024); Presque Partout, 49 Nord 6 Est—Frac Lorraine, Metz (2024); THE ARCHIVE AS …, Kunstverein München, Munich (2023); Revision, PEER Gallery, London (2022); POST, Barbican, London (2022); Expo en boîte, 49 Nord 6 Est—Frac Lorraine, Metz (2022); Governmental Fires, FUTURA, Prague (2021); Loose Routes Along the Familiar, Madonna del Pozzo, Spoleto (2021); Attendance(s) Close to the Close, Daily Practice, Rotterdam (2020); The Same Tendency, Summer Hall Place, Edinburgh (2019); and Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, Berlin Biennale, Berlin (2018).

The Missing O and E is commissioned and produced by Chisenhale Gallery, London.

Lead Supporters: Federal Ministry Republic of Austria—Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport and Bianca Roden.

With additional support from the Austrian Cultural Forum London and Chisenhale Gallery Commissions Fund. 

Chisenhale Gallery's Schools' Programme 2024 is made possible through the generosity of Goodman Gallery and Freelands Foundation.

The Chisenhale Gallery Curatorial Fellowship 2023–24 is supported by the Terra Foundation of American Art.

The 2023–24 Asymmetry Curatorial Research Fellow is hosted by Chisenhale Gallery.

Joshua Leon’s publication The Process is co-published by Chisenhale Gallery and Mousse Publishing. With the generous support of Bianca Roden, Frank Bowling and Rachel Scott.

Chisenhale Gallery
Registered charity number: 1026175