PRESS RELEASE
31 January - 15 March 2008
Opening Thursday 31 January at 18.00
Matthew Brannon
Tony Conrad
Nathan Hylden
'One Morning I Woke Up Very Early' is an exhibition that deals with the framework of imagination. The
exhibition will start with a neuro-psychological analysis of fantasy - what does it mean to see things
that are not there - and will attempt to reoccupy a space for new imaginaries in art, while at the same
time questioning and enhancing the processes of illusionism, theatricality and their relation to the
production of meaning.
The works of Matthew Brannon, Tony Conrad and Nathan Hylden, in very diverse ways, revolve around the
concept of projection, conceived either as the psychological investment of emotions and desires, or more literally, as a medium of reproduction by physically transferring a form or an image onto something else. Generally the artists in 'One Morning I Woke Up Very Early' seem to stimulate a centrifugal imagination.
Their work is able to create an awareness on the preconditions for imagination, more than guiding its
viewers along narrow lines of anecdotic narration, by investigating and amplifying the frameworks that
are able to generate speculative thought and fantasy. There is equally a subversive element of time at
work in the different oeuvres through the frequent use of repetition and slight variations on a theme.
ARTISTS
Matthew Brannon's (Idaho, 1971) stylized and softly coloured work is active in trying to occupy spaces
in the folds of a cultural subconscious. His practice moves through marginal spaces like letterpress
prints, posters, tapestries, books and records. Brannon seems to be reconstructing and restaging their
formats, permeated by linguistic perversions, slips and puns, as instances that reveal a relation to the subconscious cultivation of refined taste. His signature style combinations of short narrative texts and
stylized pop colour imagery are inviting the subject into an emotionally fragile terrain, that leads to
self destruction and perversion. For 'One Morning I Woke Up Very Early' Matthew Brannon will present two
tapestries with a bamboo print structure. The grids in 'Pulling Out' and 'Price of Admission' could either
outline the framework of a comic strip story, but they could equally construct a architectural space.
There is an ambivalent relationship between the exotic/idyllic qualities of bamboo sticks and the perhaps
more sinister interpretation of a construction of bones. Both tapestries are shown together with an
installation of a book ("Hyena") on a chair (the book can be read by the visitor), and a sound cancelling
device that is used to obscure, or mute conversations of patients in adjacent rooms, in psychoanalytic
therapy.
Tony Conrad (New Hampshire, 1940) is a seminal artist and film maker from the 1960's and 1970's. His work
remains influential and is partly responsible for the rediscovery of structural film of recent years.
"Straight and Narrow" from 1970 is a film that solely consists of vertical and horizontal black lines.
Although the film is printed on black and white film, the hypnotic pacing of the images will cause viewers
to experience a gamut of hallucinatory color effects. 'Straight and Narrow' is a study in subjective color
and visual rhythm. 'The Flicker' is a legendary film that is said to have caused members of the audience to
faint due to the optical flickering effect of the black and white alternations. It consists of only 5
different frames: a warning frame, two different title frames and a black and a white frame.
Screening of 'Straight and Narrow' 1970, b&w 10", sound, 16mm
on Thursday 31 January at 19.00
Screening of 'The Flicker' 1966, b&w 30", no sound, 16mm
on Saturday 16 February at 19.00
Nathan Hylden's (Minnesota, 1978) work contains the most physical approach to imagination and speculative
thought. His painting originates in a process of reproduction that makes use of stencils to transfer
positive or negative forms onto the canvas, much like different filmic frames are projected onto a single
screen. The stencils are dragged across the paintings leaving their traces in differents patterns and places.
The technique allows for a complex interweaving of different layers and patterns that provoke optical
illusions of depth (space) and movement (time). Hylden reinterprets painting as a means of reproduction,
literally by transferring the shapes and outlines of objects and sheets of paper, onto the flat surface of
the canvas. Generally his work is calling to mind the misty, sfumato spaces of film noir. In their
syncopated relation to time, the serial and binary minimalism of black lines goes back to the tradition of structural film among others.
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