Tonight's the Zerrissenheit

Saturday's the night. Those in Berlin this weekend or heading over for ABC should head down to RISE Berlin for a group show of film and video works curated by Stephen Dunne, who featured in my second book. Go see.

ALEXANDER TUCKER
ANTHONY GREEN
JOHN STRUTTON
LAURA BUCKLEY
MARK TITCHNER
OONAGH O´BRIEN
SEANA GAVIN & RHYS COREN

PV: Saturday 8; continues Sept 13-14, 15; Opening times: 14.00 - 19.00 h or by appointment. RISE berlin is an artist-run project space in Neukölln, Berlin. RISE berlin, Hertzbergstrasse 27, Neukölln, 12055 Berlin, Germanyinfo@riseberlin.com , www.riseberlin.com

Count down to Responsive Eyes

Back from NYC and Marrakech marathon and mere days til I open the Responsive Eyes!

Responsive Eyes curated by Francesca Gavin
Jacob’s Island Gallery 56 Butler’s & Colonial Wharf 10–11 Shad Thames London SE1 2PY

15 March — 12 May 2012
Exhibition opening: Wednesday 14 March, 6–8 pm

Anthony Antonellis, Paul B Davis, Thomas Lock, Sara Ludy, Mike Ruiz, Lucy Stokton, Mark Titchner, Artie Vierkant

The Responsive Eye was an exhibition held at MoMA in New York in 1965. It brought together artworks by so-called ‘Op’ and minimalist artists such as Bridget Riley, Josef Albers, Viktor Vasarely and Almir Mavignier. The curator William Seitz described the show an ‘exhibition that would indicate an activity, not a kind of art’. In the catalogue text Seitz writes, ‘The eye responds most directly when nonessentials such as freely modulated shape and tone, brush gestures and impasto are absent.’ He argued this was ‘non-objective perceptual art’, art that ‘exists primarily for its impact on reception rather than for conceptual examination... Ideological focus has moved from the outside world, passed through the work as object, and entered the incompletely explored region area between the cornea and the brain.’
This exhibition is best documented in an early Brian De Palma documentary posted on the Internet — our magic modern perception box, our constant optical illusion machine. The aim of the show was to use the way De Palma depicts viewers responding to these artworks — both physically and in commentary — as a way to examine how technology-infused contemporary artworks play with our relationship to the screen.

In De Palma’s 1966 film the psychologist Rudolph Arnheim observes, ‘Vision is based on discrimination. Vision is based on the distinction between things that are different from each other. If you put the human mind in a situation where this distinction is no longer there you get your brain in a situation in which the eye jumps the track. I think this is what gives you this profoundly disturbing effect.’ The comment could easily apply to how we relate and view the constant influx of movement, imagery, sound and informational content in modern screen life. Rather than an exhibition of contemporary optical artworks, the aim is to explore ideas about the process of looking, and our mental and physical relationship with art. Just as the sixties generation was awed by the experience of these ‘retinal’ works, so gifs, digital paintings or videos make us reexamine our feelings about the screen, how we look and what we are looking at.

Twin in triplicate

Issue 3 of Twin is out now! Includes a curated section by Hannah Barry, large Q&A with Mark Titchner, pieces on Sophie Calle, Gee Vaucher and other stuff. Its looking beautiful. You can buy it here

Syncopation open Oct 21, Grimmuseum Berlin

My exhibition in Berlin opens on Thursday - I'm doing a singing performance at 9pm. Jeremy Shaw (who's also in the show) is DJing at the after party. Honoured by the artists who agreed to be in the show.

SYNCOPATION
Curated by Francesca Gavin
Group exhibition with Cory Arcangel and Frankie Martin, Oliver Laric, Paolo Chiasera and DJ Shablo, Ajit Chauhan, Samuel Levack and Jennifer Lewandowski, Jayson Scott Musson, Jeremy Shaw, Matt Stokes and Mark Titchner

GRIMMUSEUM
Fichte Strasse 2 10967 Berlin
grimmuseum.com
21-31 October 2010
Open daily 14-19h

Private view Thursday 21 October 19h
Performance by Francesca Gavin 21h

+AfterParty
Bierhaus Urban from 23h
Urban Str 126 corner Graefe str
Djs Jeremy Shaw, Francesca Gavin