Claude Closky
LOVE AND FEAR
12 May – 4 October 2007
curated by Iliyana Nedkova
www.horsecross.co.uk
Accompanied by a special release of:
Read More | A journal of critical writing
Issue 3 | 2007 |
ISSN 1755-0866 (Online)
Published by Horsecross, Perth, UK
For a complimentary copy
please contact Iliyana Nedkova inedkova@horsecross.co.uk
Claude Closky: LOVE AND FEAR
This summer, Horsecross presents Love and Fear (2007), a major new commission for Threshold artspace by the French artist Claude Closky, recipient of Le Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2005. Love and Fear has been acquired for the permanent collection of the recently opened Threshold artspace and is showing as part of a new group exhibition Body Language curated by Iliyana Nedkova.
Closky’s new work Love and Fear brings a degree of intensity, absurdity and further satirical twist to his oeuvre. The qualities, which persist are Closky’s ongoing affection for the primacy of the word in contemporary art, site-considered approach to place, and disarming bravado when exposing controversies in life. The romantic, love-hate relationship, involving simultaneous or alternating emotions of love and enmity, philia and phobia, silence and noise, is at the formal and contextual core of Love and Fear.
Born in Paris in 1963, Closky is known for his subtle and witty style. He often plays with the rules, codes and hierarchy of the images, sounds and words from popular culture to shift the meaning unexpectedly. Recently Closky exhibited at Museum of Modern Art, New York; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou and Grand Palais, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hague; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; MADRE Museum, Naples; Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga and National Gallery of Fine Art, Sofia.
Love and Fear is premiered in the context of Body Language — a new group exhibition which investigates how artists use the technique of ‘people watching’ to push the boundaries of the traditional genre of figurative painting. The new cinematic figuration defines studio portraits and choreographed performances, improvised documentaries and computer game characters. Invariably artists use the primal communication of body language employing gestures and postures; eyes and smiles; masques and tattoos, and even sounds and colours in their works.
The exhibition features a dozen new additions and selected works from the Threshold artspace permanent collection by Claude Closky, Brody Condon, Matt Hulse, Dan Perjovschi, Rafaël Rozendaal, Kosta Tonev and others.
Threshold artspace | Horsecross | Esmeé Fairbairn Foundation | Scottish Arts Council | 55degrees
Threshold artspace
Horsecross, Perth Concert Hall
Mill Street, Perth PH1 5HZ
0044 (0) 845 612 6314
inedkova@horsecross.co.uk
www.horsecross.co.uk Open Daily Mon-Sat 10am-7pm Sun 12pm-5pm Concert evenings closes 11pm.
All Threshold artspace exhibitions are free and open to the public.
About Threshold artspace and Horsecross Threshold artspace launched in September 2005 to national acclaim in Perth, UK. It is home to Scotland’s only permanent collection of digital art with 60 works acquired in less than 2 years. The artspace features a number of project spaces available for artists’ interventions including an entrance box for interactive soundscapes; a ‘canvas’ of 22 flat screens dominating the artspace for multi-channel video art installations; an interactive playground for art games and live Internet art; a trail of sound boxes and sensors embedded in the floor and ceiling; an audiovisual treat in the public toilets; copper-clad roof for light artists. All Threshold artspace locations are linked together by an ‘intelligent’ software which allows artworks to be displayed through curated exhibitions and experienced 24 hours a day throughout the year.
Horsecross is a new agency delivering cultural activities in Threshold artspace, Perth Concert Hall, Perth Theatre and to all communities across the Perth & Kinross area of central Scotland. The Horsecross name comes from the local area. Threshold artspace and Perth Concert Hall sit on the site of the original Horsecross — Perth’s 17th century horse market. The name is synonymous with bustling activity in the heart of the city. The development of the £19.5m Perth Concert Hall and Threshold artspace was a Millennium project and is part of the area’s economic development strategy to position Perth as one of Europe’s most vibrant small cities by 2010. Horsecross aims to put this part of central Scotland firmly on the cultural map both nationally and internationally.
For further details please contact Iliyana Nedkova, Horsecross Creative Director (New Media Art)
tel: 01738 477743 e-mail: inedkova@horsecross.co.uk