Art & Photography: Where Were You?

Friday 18 July 2014

Where Were You? - Lisson Gallery

The Mekons, 1978: Where were you?

When I was waiting in a bar, where were you?
When I was buying you a drink, where were you?
When I was crying at home in bed, where were you?
When I watched you from a distance did you see me?
You were standing in a queue did you see me?
You had yellow hair, did you see me?
I want to talk to you all night, do you like me?
I want to find out about your life, do you like me?
Could you ever be my wife, do you love me?

Great band, great song. Listen here.
Where were you?, at the Lisson Gallery until 23 August 2014, explicitly takes its title from the Mekon's song. To be honest, I am not exactly clear about the connection between the song and the 'post-Minimalist' work on show which is described as follows:
"a group show of paintings, prints, relief objects and works on canvas that seem to require minimal intervention on the artists’ behalf, but actually belie the often complex ideas or extended periods of time spent contemplating, reworking and refining these processes... Where Were You? focuses on the work of nine artists, five of which have not shown in the UK before. Each of them articulates a minimalist aesthetic through abstraction, repetition or interruptions in surface and structure, foregrounding the intention, scale and execution of their gestures as both subjects for their work and as performative records of transient actions or incomplete thoughts." (Lisson Gallery)

Where Were You?, installation at Lisson Gallery

Of the artists featured - Allora & Calzadilla, Cory Arcangel, N. Dash, Robert Janitz, Paulo Monteiro, David Ostrowski, Michael Rey, Julia Rommel, Dan Shaw-Town only the wonderfully named Cory Arcangel (see below) is at all familiar to me. But I like the sound of what they do - and I love the Mekons' song, so I am looking forward to this.

Images below are 'illustrative', ie not necessarilly work in the exhibition.

Allora & Calzadilla

Allora & Calzadilla, Shape Shifter, 2013 (sandpaper on canvas)

Cory Arcangel

Cory Arcangel, Photoshop CS: 84 by 66 inches, 300 DPI, RGB, sqaure pixels, default gradient "Blue, Red, Yellow", mousedown y=2300 x=8600, mouseup y=2600 x=8600, 2011 (Chromogenic print)

N. Dash