BIG OBJECTS NOT ALWAYS SILENT
September 13–December 23, 2017
118 S.36th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
USA
Opening: September 13, 6:30–9pm
Nathalie Du Pasquier in conversation: September 14, 6:30–8pm, with curators Alex Klein (ICA) and Luca Lo Pinto (Kunsthalle Wien)
Performance and conversation: November 1, 6:30–8pm, with poet and musician Steve Piccolo, author and publisher Leonard Koren, and Omar Sosa, founding editor of Apartamento magazine
This fall, the Institute of Contemporary Art will present BIG OBJECTS NOT ALWAYS SILENT, the first retrospective exploring the prolific output of the self-taught artist and designer Nathalie Du Pasquier. As one of the founding members of the Italian design collective Memphis (1981–86)―emblematic for many of a postmodern aesthetic―Du Pasquier was initially recognized for her graphic textile patterns, furniture, and carpets. However, beginning in the mid-1980s Du Pasquier shifted her emphasis from the production of utilitarian objects to the abstraction of the everyday through paintings, drawings, and sculptures. This trajectory has instilled in Du Pasquier an approach that is non-hierarchical and that defies disciplinary boundaries. The exhibition installation, as conceived by Du Pasquier, is constructed like a city, with each room functioning like a building and focused on a different aspect of her thinking and creative process. This total environment includes over 130 artworks and design objects from throughout her multifaceted career in a manner that collapses categorization and periodicity.
The exhibition at ICA is co-curated by Alex Klein, the Dorothy and Stephen R. Weber (CHE ’60) Curator at ICA; and Luca Lo Pinto, curator at Kunsthalle Wien in Austria, where the first iteration of the retrospective was initially conceived and presented by Lo Pinto last fall.
BIG OBJECTS NOT ALWAYS SILENT is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue co-produced by ICA and Kunsthalle Wien, which is published by Sternberg Press and features an extensive conversation with Nathalie Du Pasquier and curator Luca Lo Pinto, as well as short essays by Andrew Ayers, Dafne Boggeri, Steve Piccolo, Lodovico Pignatti Morano, and Barbara Radice.
Support for this exhibition has been provided by 4Spaces Textiles, Zürich, Switzerland; Memphis Srl, Dorothy & Martin Bandier, Charles X Block, Carol & John Finley, Cheri & Steven Friedman, Christina Weiss Lurie, Amanda & Andrew Megibow, and Stephanie & David Simon.
