Coming Soon - Statues Die Too

17th November- 28th November 2009 12-6PM

They inhabit islands, museums, what were once public squares for the proletariat. Here there exist these fine specimens of muscular perfection, preserved representations of the human image, people of the past. They appear within the desolate landscape of monumental ruins, silent relics set in stone, not disturbing the animals that graze at their feet…

Statues Die Too is a group show presenting new works by Gabriele Beveridge, Rose O’Gallivan, Niamh Riordan, Poppy Jones and Lise Hovesen. Using traditional and contemporary printmaking processes, photomontage, film, restoration and sculptural installations, the exhibition draws on the concerns about the relation between history, culture and obsolescence explored by Chris Marker and Alan Resnais in their 1953 film Les Statues Meurent Aussi.

Taking place in a glass roofed car park in South Kensington. Statues Die Too sees five artists seeking to interrogate the relationship between their own practice and the basic human inclination to preserve, restore and reproduce. By addressing these issues in a range of media – from tradition printmaking to mobile phone technology – the artists deconstruct the relationship between memorabilia and memory, art and archive.

The conjunction of different media with different concepts of history allows new and fruitful associations to take place. Lise Hovesen’s descision to exhibit a restored Victorian carriage alongside a film made recently in the Zone at Chernobyl leads the viewer to challenging conclusions about destruction and restoration. Niamh Riordan’s idiosyncratic projection devices question the course of cinematic history itself, creating alternative modes of projection that emphasise the role of illusion in all cinematic practice.

The exhibition also shows the artists utilizing traditional and time consuming craft-based processes. Rose O’Gallivan’s delicate etchings take structural designs and reproduce them as etched motifs. By displaying her work along the folded gallery walls O’Gallivan aligns these archaic designs with the contemporary architecture of the space.

Gabriele Beveridge’s work in photography and assemblage interrogates the role of the gaze in constructing history. By combining images and other remnants in seductive groupings Beveridge reveals how images and memories become imbued with meaning in order to tell coherent narratives. Similarly, Poppy Jones uses traditional printmaking processes to reproduce video footage and images taken on mobile phones. In doing so she imagines a culture that has forgotten how to assemble representation back into a meaning and history, leaving us with mysterious printed artefacts whose provenance we are unable to determine.