[email protected]
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/adamartgallery
The Subject Now brings together nine artists working in various locations who pose new and compelling questions about the nature of the human subject under present conditions.
According to exhibition curator and director of the Adam Art Gallery, Christina Barton, these artists do not conceive the subject as a freewheeling individual in command of their thoughts and emotions; nor as an indeterminate construct prey to the simulacral effects of representation; nor even as someone whose identity is linked foremost to their colour, class, gender or sexual persuasion.
Instead their concerns seem to be with a notion of the subject as a consciousness conditioned by its relation to others; for them subjectivity is contingent, a position to be articulated, negotiated, and projected. Thus, the exhibition moves past humanist, poststructuralist and multiculturalist positions, to offer a new ‘take’ on how we represent ourselves.
Working mainly with photography and video these artists recognise the ever-present role of these media today, and offer a timely set of responses that map the terrain of contemporary experience for viewers to negotiate.
Perhaps what links and distinguishes this selection of artists is that each takes advantage of the formal properties of their medium to stage an encounter that draws in the viewer. By folding together form and content and refusing the kinds of ideological motivation that drive the mainstream media, they guarantee art a vital function: to destabilise any fixed playing out of subject positions and, therefore, to enable reflection on what it means to ‘be’ in the world today.
Artists in The Subject Now are: Halil Altindere (Turkey), Willie Doherty (Ireland), Daniel du Bern (NZ/UK), et al. (NZ), Terrence Handscomb (NZ/USA), Hye Rim Lee (NZ/US/South Korea), Aernout Mik (Netherlands), Markéta Othová (Czech Republic) and Kan Xuan (China).
The exhibition will be accompanied by a programme of talks, forums and a workshop that will expand on the artistic, theoretical and political implications of the exhibition.
OPENING
Friday 25 July, 5.30-8pm
PARTY
Friday 25 July, Mighty Mighty, 104 Cuba Street, Wellington, 8pm – late
Featuring Crystal Beauty: Electro Doll, Hye Rim Lee with Jed Town
The Adam Art Gallery is the university gallery of Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand. It is a forum for critical thinking about art and its histories as well as the professional structure within which the Victoria University Art Collection is managed. The gallery has built a considerable reputation for its programmes that explore the full range of media available to artists and which aim to test and expand art form and disciplinary boundaries. The gallery is a remarkable architectural statement designed by Ian Athfield, one of New Zealand’s foremost architects.
If you require further information please contact: Laura Preston. Email: [email protected]
Phone: 64 4 463 5229
Adam Art Gallery
Victoria University of Wellington
Gate 3, Kelburn Parade
PO Box 600, Wellington
New Zealand
Tuesday – Sunday, 11am – 5pm
64 4 463 5489 / 64 4 463 5229
[email protected]
http://www.victoria.ac.nz/adamartgallery
Image above:
Daniel du Bern, YOUTH WORK, 2007/8
For more information go to: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/adamartgallery
