Reflecting Another Space

The Agency is pleased to present “Reflecting Another Space”, with works by Arocha/Schraenen (B), Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven (B)and Katie Grinnan (USA). The works presented range from installation to prints on Perspex, objects made from clothing and video. “Reflecting Another Space” is an exhibition about the literally superficial. Its selection of artists is not based on shared content or concerns, but instead the surface of their work; the materials with which they work and, in particular, their tendency to use reflective materials and surfaces to construct their individual discourses. The artists have individually made works over the development of their practice in which the intrinsically reflective nature of materials – mirror, Perspex, glossy photographic finishes- have been harnessed to initiate or elaborate a discussion. In some cases, these reflective aspects are used dominantly, wrapping an entire work in a patina of reflected light. In other cases, it is the juxtaposition of reflective surfaces and the opaque – wood, paint, matt colour or dull metal, the almost absorbent nature of a projected image- that are used to develop meaning or construct a discourse. Each of the invited artists has clearly developed her own concerns, visual languages and approaches. Yet is arguable that the coincidentally shared choice to use reflective surfaces does lead to elements that might be seen as a kind of shared visual language; a kind of independent development of a consensual reading of the reflective surface when used in certain ways. More specifically, we can see how in the case of all three artists –despite very different content and intentions in relation to her larger artistic practice- the way in which reflective surface is used often raises questions about the nature of physical and other space. Perhaps they use the mirror-like qualities of surface within the longstanding cultural tradition of the loaded meaning of the resistant reflective surface; the mirror as a portal or gate into another place or dimension, whether this is psychological, perceptual, spiritual or even formal. And yet conversely, the other apparently shared interest in the scientific could suggest the caution of those conscious of empiricism. They engage in acknowledging the magical nature of a surface reflecting light in a way that also speaks of the scientific awareness of the phenomenon albeit applied through the artist’s intuitive creative process.

AROCHA/SCHRAENEN, born 1961 in Caracas Venezuela, lives and works in Antwerp. She has shown extensively internationally, a/o in FRAC Auvergne, Muhka Antwerp and Kunsthalle Bern. Since 2005 she creates collaborative works with Belgian artist Stéphane Schraenen , born 1971 in Antwerp, which continue to engage further with the conceptual basis of previous installation and multimedia works. Their collaborative works were shown last year at Andre Schlechtriem Temporary, New York and earlier this year at Monique Meloche gallery, Chicago.

ANNE-MIE VAN KERCKHOVEN born 1951 in Antwerp, Belgium. She is scheduled for a forthcoming solo show at WIELS, Brussles in 2008 and had a solo show at Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin earlier this year. In Belgium she has worked with Zeno X gallery since its inception. Van Kerckhoven participated in the group exhibition "Dream Extensions" in SMAK Ghent in 2004. She had a large solo show at the Kunsthalle in Bern (CH), beginning 2005. Her work was included in the exhibition "The Last Generation", curated by Max Henry and shown in New York (US) in 2005 and Paris (FR) in 2006. In 2006-07 she received a DAAD-stipendium to work in Berlin.

KATIE GRINNAN was born in Richmond, Virginia and lives and works in LA. Recent solo shows were at the Whitney Museum, New York, ACME gallery Los Angeles and the Aspen Art Museum. Recent group shows include MOCA, Los Angeles and Grimm/Rosenfeldt Gallery New York.

ANNE MIE VAN KERCKHOVEN LET'S TRY AND FIND OUT WHAT GOES ON IN THE MALE BARRACKS

Van Kerckhoven produced the fillm “ Let’s Try and Find Out What Goes On in the Male Barracks” as part of her ongoing multimedia practice. Rather than being a feminist take on male theory it details a female curiosity of how significant tendencies of 20th century modermism might function if re-staged by a woman. Van Kerckhoven creates a deconstructive filmic narrative, in which the protagonists are a symbolist, personified by painter-fortune teller Louis Wuytack, a romantic personified by musician Mauro Pawlowski and performance artist Danny Devos, as personifier of modernism. Symbolism is represented as the bridge between Romanticism and Modernism. The symbolist changes automatically, as a romantic, into a modernist. Modernism here is seen as the fruit of intellectual scarcity, decaying towards the ultra-artificial on every level of civilisation. As a critique of the rigidity of modernism the film’s broken narrative, switching imagery and references to eroticism and death turn the representation of the essential modernist into a spiritual portait of the male artist. The film’s premise is a theoretical critique yet it’s result is a mesmerising array of eroticised sequences and poetic imagery. The title of the film leads to the reading of the film of the female director as the complicit voyeur into the practices and belief structures of imaginary male artistic production in the form of a double-take. The footage was filmed from 2004 until 2006 in Antwerp, Paris, Xiamen (China) and Vladivostok (Russia). Raphaëlle Jamet and Guy Schraenen contributed towards the completion of the film.

REFLECTING ANOTHER SPACE S.T.O.R.A.G.E: A.VAN KERCKHOVEN 12 OCT- 17 NOV 2007 CURATED BY KEN PRATT

Reflecting Another Space
Kurator: Ken Pratt

mit Arocha / Schraenen, Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven, Katie Grinnan