Rindon Johnson: Law of Large Numbers: Our Selves

Chisenhale Gallery presents Law of Large Numbers: Our Selves, a new commission and first solo exhibition in a UK institution by Berlin-based artist Rindon Johnson. The first iteration of this commission—Law of Large Numbers: Our Bodies—was presented at SculptureCenter, New York, earlier this year. Johnson’s exhibition is commissioned and produced by Chisenhale Gallery and SculptureCenter.

Moving between physical, object-based works and immersive, virtual space, Johnson’s work cuts through assumed realities and examines how virtual and physical spaces are intimately aligned. His work is couched first in language; in the ways that language fails, contradicts or empowers. Through modes of expression spanning publishing, virtual and augmented reality, to working with materials such as leather, wood and stone to create sculptures and installations, Johnson explores the impact of capitalism, climate and technology on how we see and construct ourselves.

For his commission at Chisenhale Gallery, Johnson works both within the walls of the building, as well as beyond them. The gallery hosts a single-channel video projected onto a vast screen. Coeval Proposition #2: Last Year’s Atlantic, or You look really good, you look like you pretended like nothing ever happened, or a Weakening (2020) comprises a continuous live rendering of ocean weather data meticulously collected by Johnson from March 2020 to January 2021. On any given day over the course of the exhibition, the work generates second-for-second figurative visualisations of weather data gathered on the same day in the previous year. The result creates a yearlong portrait of an area of ocean-surface and surrounding sky, seen from various perspectives. Continuously mapping a recent past through computer generated imagery, Johnson transports visitors to a contained yet constantly moving mass of water to observe its changing climate—from undulating waves, to falling rain and clearing skies.

This site, known as North Atlantic “cold blob”, or the “North Atlantic warming hole”, is coincidently located at the approximate geographical midpoint between Chisenhale Gallery in London and SculptureCenter in New York. The mass of water is a stubborn cool patch that, despite the surrounding water’s rising temperature, stays cold. A direct result of Greenland’s ice sheet melting due to climate change, the cooler waters in this area interfere with the Gulf Stream current’s regulation of oceanic and land temperatures from the east coast of North America to the west coast of Europe.

Installed in the Hertford Union Canal, which runs along the back of Chisenhale Gallery is Coeval Proposition #1: Tear down so as to make flat with the Ground or The *Trans America Building DISMANTLE EVERYTHING (2020), a large-scale sculpture referencing the distinctive silhouette of the Transamerica Pyramid in Johnson’s hometown, San Francisco. Floating on a temporary pontoon in the canal, the work is only visible from the towpath of the waterway. The Transamerica Pyramid’s silhouette and name act as starting points to address questions of identity and belonging, such as where one comes from, but also account for an ongoing process of identification and disidentification. Johnson’s sculpture disregards the Transamerica Pyramid’s iconic material construction of concrete, steel, glass and white quartz to produce a work that references the building as a reconstructed outline, remade in reclaimed ebonised redwood and steel. Exposed to the elements and affected by the movement of the canal’s waters, the work is both vulnerable and steadfast, simultaneously looking for recognition and obscurity, watched over by a small light embedded in the window of the gallery. 

Accompanying the commission is a publication with original writings by Johnson, published by SculptureCenter, Chisenhale Gallery, and Inpatient Press. Connecting Johnson’s rigorous and poetic writing practice with the larger themes of the exhibition, the publication reflects Johnson’s commission and thought processes, as well as being a record of the varied ideas, artistic figures, and approaches that inform his practice. Johnson’s exhibition concludes Chisenhale Gallery’s 2021 Commission Programme, which also included exhibitions by artists Yu Ji and Abbas Akhavan.

Exhibition events
As part of the commissioning process, a programme of talks and events has been devised in collaboration with Rindon Johnson, spanning the duration of the exhibition.

Live reading by Rindon Johnson 
Tuesday, November 9, 7pm (onsite)
Johnson reads from his new book The Law of Large Numbers, followed by an open discussion of the commission with friends and collaborators.

Panel discussion in collaboration with Afterall and The Black Atlantic Museum 
Thursday, January 27, 7pm (online)
Chisenhale Gallery, Afterall, and The Black Atlantic Museum host a discussion examining the fluid geographies, indeterminate borders, and cultural hybridities of what sociologist Paul Gilroy has termed the “Black Atlantic”.

Exhibition tour 
Saturday, February 5, 3pm (onsite)
Amina Adan Jama, Frieze x Deutsche Bank Emerging Curatorial Fellow, leads a tour of Johnson’s exhibition.

Artist group crits 
Saturday, December 11, 2pm (onsite) 
In response to Johnson’s ongoing interest in the pedagogical framework of the “artist group crit” Peer Sessions and artist Harold Offeh lead an open discussion inviting members of the audience to share work- in- progress.

Saturday, January 15, 2pm (onsite)
In response to Johnson’s ongoing interest in the pedagogical framework of the “artist group crit” Peer Sessions and artist Paul Maheke lead an open discussion inviting members of the audience to share work- in- progress.

All events are free to attend and open to all, but booking is essential. Please visit chisenhale.eventbrite.co.uk to book your tickets. 

BSL interpretation for events at Chisenhale Gallery is available on request. Please contact mail [​at​] chisenhale.org.uk  for further information. Please be advised that two weeks’ notice is required in order to confirm an interpreter. 

Biography
Rindon Johnson lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Selected exhibitions include; Law of Large Numbers: Our Bodies, SculptureCenter, New York (2021); Away with You, Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington DC; This End The Sun, New Museum, New York (both 2020); Circumscribe, Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf (All 2019); New Black Portraitures, Rhizome, Online; and NGV Triennial, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (both 2017).

Law of Large Numbers: Our Selves is commissioned and produced by Chisenhale Gallery and SculptureCenter, New York. Lead Exhibition Supporters: Shane Akeroyd and Concrete Projects. Headline Exhibition Supporters: the Henry Moore Foundation, Valeria Napoleone and Alice Rawsthorn. Produced with support from the Chisenhale Gallery Commissions Fund. With additional support from the Rindon Johnson Supporters’ Circle.