A Kingdom of Hours

With: Peggy Ahwesh (USA), Teresa Burga (Peru), Wilson Díaz (Colombia), Nilbar Güreş (Turkey), William E Jones (USA), Candice Lin and Patrick Staff (USA/UK), Priscilla Monge (Costa Rica), Solange Pessoa (Brazil), Emilia Prieto Tugores (Costa Rica), Cecilia Vicuña (Chile) and Osías Yanov (Argentina).

“Why did they give me a kingdom to rule over if there is no better kingdom than this hour in which I exist between what I was not and will not be?”
–Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet, as read aloud in Peggy Ahwesh’s video She Puppet (2001)

A Kingdom of Hours explores how artists disrupt sequential time—from biological rhythms to historical chronologies—to undermine rigid structures of belonging. Videos, woodcuts and sculptures by William E Jones, Emilia Prieto Tugores an Osías Yanov disentangle queer or feminist affects from their present tense through strategies of repetition, fragmentation and anachronism, while videos and works on paper by Peggy Ahwesh, Teresa Burga and Wilson Díaz reflect on how human life cycles are socially conditioned. Presented alongside sculptures, paintings and textile pieces by Nilbar Güreş, Priscilla Monge, Cecilia Vicuña and Candice Lin and Patrick Staff that explore gendered forms of cultural assimilation and societal expectation, these works emphasise material and symbolic experiences of plasticity, fluidity and mutability. Together they compose rhythms of empathy and desire that question how subjectivities are constrained by periodisation, patriarchy and capitalism.

A Kingdom of Hours is indebted to queer theorist Elizabeth Freeman’s writings on “chrononormativity”—a process of standardisation through which societies’ rhythms are internalised by their constituents like city smog—and “erotohistoriography,” or a deeply affective approach to history rooted in desire. The exhibition brings together artists from different generations and cultural backgrounds to consider the biopolitical implications of these terms and “chronodissident” strategies and forms.

Curated by Robert Leckie (Curator, Gasworks) and Miguel A. López (Chief Curator, TEOR/éTica), this exhibition is part of an institutional collaboration between Gasworks and TEOR/éTica, where a revised version of the exhibition will open on October 19, 2016.

Gasworks’ 2016 Exhibitions Programme is supported by Catherine Petitgas.

Related events

Museum, Musex, Mutext, Mutant: Giuseppe Campuzano’s Transvestite Machine: June 23, 7pm
Miguel A. López presents a talk on Peruvian philosopher, drag queen and activist Giuseppe Campuzano’s Museo Travesti del Perú (Transvestite Museum of Peru)

Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories: July 20, 7pm
Elizabeth Freeman discusses her recent work and research around chrononormativity and erotohistoriography
 

Summer Open Studios
Open studios: Saturday, June 25, 12–6pm
Artists’ talks: Saturday, June 25, 4–5:30pm

Heaven Baek (South Korea), hosted in the Sackler Residency Studio
Barbora Kleinhamplová (Czech Republic), hosted in the Juan Yarur Torres Residency Studio
Engel Leonardo (Dominican Republic), hosted in the Outset Residency Studio
David Mutiloa (Spain), hosted in the Roberts Residency Studio

Gasworks’ current international artists in residence open their studios to the public throughout the day on Saturday, June 25. Open studios and artists’ talks offer London audiences a unique opportunity to see, hear about and discuss the research and work-in-progress that these artists have been developing over the past three months at Gasworks.

Our current residencies are supported by ARKO (Arts Council Korea); the Czech Centre London and the Arts Institute, Prague; the Shelagh Wakely Bequest, administered by the Elephant Trust; and Acción Cultural Española.