doubleuse / double bind

upcoming exhibition:

DOUBLE USE

The Nunnery Gallery
Bow Arts Trust
183 Bow Road
London
E3 2SJ

23rd February - 18th March 2007

ARTISTS:
Amikam Toren
Ben Ravenscroft
Gerard Hemsworth
Jane Harris
John Wilkins
Katherine McKee
Louise Hopkins
Mick Finch
Moyra Derby
Pavel Büchler
Richard Kirwan
Sadie Murdoch

A publication with texts by JJ Charlesworth & Sean Ashton will be available during the exhibition.

Date posted 2006-11-25 20:54:37

exhibition proposal

working title: double use/double bind

To expand on ideas researched via 'MYTHOMANIA', a group exhibition at The Metropole Galleries, Folkestone and 'MYTHOMANIA Supplements Temporaires', a museum intervention at Le LAAC, Lieu d'Art et Action Contemporain, Dunkerque. See www.mythomania.co.uk for further details on both projects.

context for proposal:

The use of the term ‘Mythomania’ opened up research on a truth / deception axis evident within painting. ‘Mythomania’ refers to excessive and complex lying, which could be argued as the intentional deception of others or an extraordinary case of self delusion. Evidence of what we considered a mythomanic approach to painting steered the selection of the artists involved.

We were interested in the very particular strategies, rules and repeated processes put to work by each of the artists, and how these working actions were reactive to or framed by a sense of art historical precedence. Each of the artists had an engagement with painting conventions, not necessarily with making paintings.

The narrowness of the field of allowed activity in each case was crucial, the sense of permission to act being hard won or convoluted. The bounding of that field, the forced bounce back from edge to edge, or corner to corner was considered in relation to the term 'double bind'. 'Double bind’ implies, via its use in social science, a psychological limbo in which a person repeatedly comes up against mutually contradictory assertions that demand a response. The contradictory assertions that we were interested in involved the double invoking of truth and deception obligations, but understood in multiple and changeable ways.

A parallel with lexical ambiguity, in which opposed meanings can be held together by the same word, has prompted research on the term 'double use' as a counterpoint to 'double bind'. 'Double use' also implies that something is put to work, and allows for a state of contradiction that does not create stasis but provokes activity. The contrapositioning of painting can then be understood as functional, as an ongoing prompt to action, and the 'double use / double bind' exhibition would act as evidence of this response.

Date posted 2006-11-25 20:56:13