Keeping it Real: Material Intelligence

The exhibition includes artists such as Paul Chan, Arturo Herrera, Martin Kippenberger, Seth Priceand Kelley Walker who use existing images as a material in their work. Whether by taking cuttings from newspapers or using common technologies such as desktop scanners, they heighten the physicality of their chosen images by cropping, distorting and layering them.

Works on show include Martin Kippenberger's collages combining reproductions of iconic Pop Art works by Roy Lichtenstein taken from a Deutsche Bank calendar with cut-outs from a German nudist magazine and Arturo Herrera's abstract collages which incorporate segments of his own comic-inspired works. Closely connected to the video projections he is best known for, Paul Chan's black-and-white images as much as Seth Price's wall-mounted silhouettes give solid, material form to the usually empty space between objects.

Kelley Walker's brick 'painting' printed onto newspaper, a complete copy of which is mounted on the reverse of the canvas, acts like a time capsule both revealing and obscuring images related to a specific moment in time. Gabriel Kuri's Quick Standards, (2005), made from silver emergency blankets ironically question the continuous possibilities of political protest while Rivane Neuenschwander's film in high-speed motion shows ants devouring a map of the world rendered in honey. In Gabriel Orozco's Moon Tree, each leaf carries a paper moon, to make a connection between the most humble of materials and the cosmos.

Sam Durant's graffiti of a famous 1968 slogan on a large mirror reflects on the link between avant-garde art and revolutionary politics, while Ester Partegàs portrait of anonymous shoppers exposes the impersonal nature of consumer culture. The display offers a rare opportunity to see two works by Cady Noland in the UK, who explores clichés of power by displaying the US-flag on a zimmer frame and presenting the life-size image of a cowboy perforated by holes.

This exhibition is the fourth and final exhibition in a series of four displays drawn from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection, Greece, as part of the Gallery's programme to open up important art collections to the public. Devised by Achim Borchardt-Hume, Chief Curator, Whitechapel Gallery, Keeping it Real is a series of four micro-exhibitions, with each one building on the memory of its predecessor. They bring together artworks whose meaning is deeply rooted in the materials employed by the artists.

The presentation of the D.Daskalopoulos Collection is part of the Whitechapel Gallery's ongoing programme of opening up collections that are rarely seen by the public in the UK. Exhibitions are displayed in the dedicated Collections Gallery, one of the new spaces in the recently expanded building which opened in April 2009. It follows the presentation of 5 displays from the British Council Collection from April 2009–May 2010. The Whitechapel Gallery's programme of collection displays is supported by specialist insurer Hiscox.

Keeping it Real
Material Intelligence
Kurator: Achim Borchardt-Hume

Künstler: Paul Chan, Arturo Herrera, Martin Kippenberger, Seth Price Kelley Walker