29th July – 14th August 2011
The Old Chapel Asylum Road, London, SE15 2SQ
Alison Honey,Elza Jo, Sophia Schorr-Kon, Grace Morgan Pardo, Oliver Pietsch,Samantha Sweeting,Minnie Weisz
The Old Chapel, Asylum Road, London, SE15 2SQ
Watch the VIDEO preview here
“Let us rejoice, therefore While we are young After a pleasant youth After a troubling old age The earth will have us.”
– Gaudeamus Igitur (So Let Us Rejoice) 1287
Ubi sunt motifs are meditations on mortality and life’s transience. Drawing from this central theme, the exhibition interrogates the sacred in art through the use of rituals, resulting in the making of contemporary relics and votive objects. Exhibiting artists also draw upon Día de los Muertos, The Day of the Dead celebrations, rituals celebrating the deaths of ancestors observed by civilisations
perhaps for as long as 3,000 years. These celebrations today are still strongly influenced by more ancient practices, and vary in tone from sombre mourning to celebratory and euphoric libation.
Image:Oliver Pietsch, From Here to Eternity, 2010, video, 40 mins.
Berlin-based artist Oliver Pietsch’s recent film From Here to Eternity explores the theme by presenting a history of death in the history of cinema. This filmic montage includes some humour as well as seriousness interpreted by actors
through time. Pietsch has been working with the same technique for years.
He stoically distills his own visual cosmos for his montages from the inexhaustible
source of genre and mainstream productions from all eras of film history, taking scenes from their actual film context and combining them in a thematic series.
Flemish artist Elza Jo series, Something Sacred in the Woods, places her as shaman in this series of hand crafted photographs. Jo allows the viewer to take a peek into her personal surroundings; her friends, her cat Rico and herself are most
definitely favorite subjects. In the ever-evolving digital era, Elza Jo prefers genuine
handcraft. She adds extra layers to her photos and videos by gluing, stapling, sewing and embroidering. This creates an exciting contrast between real and
artificial, which sucks the viewer into a romantic, surreal world.
Alison Honey’s work seeks to explore the perennial relationship between worship, wildness and enchantment. Totem I and Totem II conjure the hybrid nature of hunting – an act of domination, but also at times of deep spiritual significance.
This three-week long exhibition also includes new commissions from some of
the participating artists.
Minnie Weisz is creating a series of camera obscuras reinventing past histories
of the Chapel reflected in the medium of camera obscura and photographic installations using found ephemera and stories she tracks down along her journey into the mysteries of the Peckham area playing with time and notions of place. She chances upon the idea of ‘ haven’ as a way to evoke a limbo space playing with the present and the past history of the chapel and Peckham neighbourhood. A visual dialogue between interior and exterior worlds are unlocked through the medium of pinhole photography, camera obscura installations, and collodion wet plate photography.
Sophia Schorr-Kon’s new photographic works asks you to immerse yourself
within the piercing gaze of a lithe and unrecognisable creature. Representing
the brink of life, it creates space for the treasures that can be retrieved
from meditations in dark and inhospitable places that exist in our emotional
landscape. Piecing together her own experience of the edge of life at an
early age Schorr-Kon has created symbolic and affronting works that call to
the ancient part of us all and ask us to listen to the mystical whisperings that
rise up from this place of sorrow and vulnerability.
Samantha Sweeting’s video works The House Falls Down and Vessel mark the
relationship between the body and the space it inhabits. She uses the camera
to contain a collection of vocal releases and gestures, embracing and letting
go of the histories housed in the walls and inscribed on her body.
Chilean-Canadian artist Grace Morgan Pardo’s practice primarily takes the form of portrait and still life painting, as well as performance art. Grace is strongly influenced by folklore and South American spiritual practices, as much as by personal and family history. Her paintings, performances and installations, have at the core, the concepts of the sacred origins of art and the significance of votive objects. Through an installation of ephemera, video documentation and a series of performances, Grace will experiment with a series of binding spells constituting in a performance on the preview evening.
After party at Clf Arts Café, The Bussey Buildings, 133 Rye Lane, London, SE15 4ST. 10pm till 2am with Dollop DJ’s, James Pearson-Howes, Jon Rust and Bradley Zero.
Q&A’s with Ubi Sunt Artists
Image:Alison Honey, Totem II, 2011
Alison Honey
Alison Honey was born in 1979 in Toronto, Canada and received her BFA from Concordia University in Montreal. She lives and works in London. Honey’s work seeks to explore the perennial relationship between worship, wildness and enchantment. Totem I and Totem II conjure the hybrid nature of hunting – an act of domination, but also at times of deep spiritual significance. Equal parts grotesque and beautiful, it partakes of the profane and the sacred. This series is also keen to evoke a speculative anthropology where the viewer imagines the culture that gave rise to these relics. The viewer is enticed to weave a
narrative about this unknown people and their strange gods – are these trophies, icons or talismans? However, this is not solely a matter of prehistory, it demands that we ponder our present relationship to the more-than-human world; and the future too – with all of its grave implications for our relations with nature.
1. If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
I’d like to be a treasure hunter. I might still do that.
2. Anytime, any place – which artist’s body would you most like to inhabit?
Diego Rivera would be a good one.
3. What is your favorite ‘ism’?
Maximalism
4. What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about your work?
That it was amazing.
5. And the dumbest?
That it was ugly, but maybe rich people would like it (thanks Mum).
6. Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
Not really, but I don’t want to give it away for free… I would like to one day own a sailboat, so I need to start saving up for it now.
7. What are the three big ideas that you would like your work to express?
Beauty, wonder and metamorphosis.
8. How do you start the process of making work?
I like the Jasper Johns method – Do something, do something to that, then do something to that.
9. What’s next for you?
I don’t know, something good I hope!
10. If you could ask yourself one question what would it be? And what would be the answer?
I never ask myself questions, I know I’m not going to have the answer.
Image:Elza Jo, Something sacred in the woods, 2010
Elza Jo
They say home is where the heart is. It is safe to say Elza Jo (Born 1981, in Amsterdam where she lives and works, graduated 2004 at the Royal Academy of
Arts in the Hague), agrees on that. As a photographer and filmmaker, she likes
keeping it all in her own little backyard, literally. Jo allows the viewer to take a
peek into her personal surroundings, her friends, her cat Rico and Elza Jo herself
are most definitely her favourite subjects.
In the ever-evolving digital era, Elza Jo prefers genuine handcraft. Instead of night
time photo shopping, she adds extra layers to her photos and videos by gluing,
stapling, sewing and embroider. This creates an exciting contrast between real
and artificial, which sucks the viewer into a romantic, surreal world that feels like
coming home.
1. If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
I would have had a job where I had to put things in alphabetical order
2. Anytime, any place – which artist’s body would you most like to inhabit?
Serge Gainsbourg
3. What is your favourite ‘ism’?
Fatalism
4. What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about your work?
That Rico, my cat who appears in most of my work, must have a trauma by now
5. And the dumbest?
That I “pimp” my photo’s, made me throw up in my mouth a little, I took a long
shower after
6. Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
No, I’m really bad at money-issues
7. What are the three big ideas that you would like your work to express?
obsession, human/animal-relations, youth
8. How do you start the process of making work?
Think of an obsession
9. What’s next for you?
Finding out why it is
Image:Sophia Schorr-Kon, Delphines Call, 2010
Sophia Schorr-Kon
Sophia investigates the shadowy world of loss and finds beauty, calm and the myth beneath. Working from an experience of loss at an early age, this vast and rich emotional experience provides the fibers for weaving together a delicate and
beautiful exploration of the negative space left behind by a lost loved one.
Sophia aims to bring about a dialogue around loss through her work and
highlight the wisdom within this powerful experience we all will share one day.
Originating from Cambridge and now working in London, Sophia has created
commissions for the Wyresdale Estate in Lancashire and is working towards a
publication due for release in 2011.
1. If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
I have spent my life being many other things so far, but they have always had artistic undercurrents, I don’t think I could ever be anything that did not have a vein of creativity running through it, so if I had to take on another occupation as of tomorrow, it would probably be a florist, as the idea of working in a shop bursting with flowers of all kinds of colours and sweet smells would get me out of bed in the morning and fulfill my creativity handsomely, and it would mean I could have fresh flowers as a perk of the job!
2. Anytime, any place – which artist’s body would you most like to inhabit?
Hmmmm Marina Abramovitch would be pretty intense, that woman is magnificent.
3. What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about your work?
I am showing for the first time in this show so its all yet to be dissected by the hands of others, I am keen to see what people make of it and how it will be received.
4. And the dumbest?
We will wait and see…
5. Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
I do care what my art costs as in creating what I do, I incur costs and I need my practice to be financially viable, I think there are too many situations in which artists are meant to produce for nothing and creativity is taken advantage of. I feel there is value beyond money in what I do, but there are also practical costs that I have to cover to support these concepts and these need be supported financially so that I can keep the process going.
6. What are the three big ideas that you would like your work to express?
I think the underpinning elements I am trying to address with my work are looking closely at the relationship we have with death in our society, inspiring expression through creation and going to the edge of life and bringing something ancient back somehow.
7. How do you start the process of making work?
It all starts as ideas and feelings and emotional explorations, then I look to avenues of research and then the creation it’s self takes over and leads me, it can be really powerful.
8. What’s next for you?
I am beginning a new series of photographs of people who deal with death in the every day, I find it amazing that something that is so shocking and life changing to us on a personal level, to some people its their job, I am fascinated and in awe of them.
10. If you could ask yourself one question what would it be ? and what would be the answer ?
Ha ha, at the moment it would be ‘ Who the hell do you think you are?’ My
answer at this moment ‘No comment’…
Image:Samantha Sweeting, Bestilalia (I never imagined life without you), 2007
Samantha Sweeting
Samantha Sweeting (born Singapore, 1982) is a London-based artist, working across photography, video, performance, installation, text and object. She graduated from London College of Communication with a First Class BA in Photography, before being awarded an AHRC scholarship to complete her Masters in Visual Performance at Dartington College of Art. After several years spent living with her menagerie of abandoned animals between rural England and a falling-down farmhouse in a forest in the French Pyrénées, she returned to London, where she currently lives and works.
1. If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
A psychotherapist, sex worker or zoo keeper.
2. Anytime, any place – which artist’s body would you most like to inhabit?
A mythical combination of Helen Chadwick, Louise Bourgeois and Unica Zurn.
3. What is your favourite ‘ism’?
The F word.
4. What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about your work?
I don’t really understand it but I like it.
5. And the dumbest?
“Eugh, that’s not art, it’s animal abuse.”
6. Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
I rarely make anything that I can or want to sell. How do you put a value on your ex- lover’s hair?
7. What are the three big ideas that you would like your work to express?
Birth, sex, and death.
8. How do you start the process of making work?
I write a lot, mostly thoughts, conversations and memories. There’s normally
something I want to resolve or relive; feelings of desire, melancholia, fear, love,
violation. A dialogue between my stories and other people’s.
9. What’s next for you?
A series of works looking at the relationship between bodies and houses, and the
narratives that they each contain. I recently went to a talk by Susie Orbach, where
she was saying that there’s no such thing as a body (singular) as all bodies are
relational. I’m interested in boundaries and merging, how one body can be a vessel
for another body’s history.
10. If you could ask yourself one question what would it be ? and what would be the answer ?
Q: Who would you most like to work with?
A: Jeanette Winterson.
www.samanthasweeting.com/
Image:Grace Morgan Pardo, Alterpiece, 2010
Grace Morgan Pardo
Chilean-Canadian artist Grace Morgan Pardo makes paintings, performances and installations, which have at there core, the concepts of the sacred origins of art and the significance of votive objects. Through an installation of ephemera, video documentation and a series of performances, Grace will
experiment with a series of binding spells.
A binding spell is a magical formula intended to “bind” a person’s will or behaviour.
Examples of binding spells include love spells, attempts to silence enemies, or any other magic intended to force or restrain the action of another. many binding spells involve the use of knots, pins, or other symbolic restraints. Binding spells represent the largest part of the popular imagination of magic. It brings to mind: black magic, the ill conceived intentions of petty, vengeful egos, maddened lovers and their poorly thought out plans. These spells are cryptic, malevolent, sinister.
Out of sheer curiosity Grace has decided to hold a mirror up to these morose, compulsive, perverse practices.
1 If you weren’t an artist, what else would you be?
In an ideal world, a sign painter and a mother. I really like wood work and making things with my hands. Sometimes I work as an art director on commercials, music videos, films. So realistically, I would probably that.
2. Anytime, any place – which artist’s body would you most like to inhabit?
There are endless artists’ minds I’d love to inhabit, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Carrevagio, Bronzino, Velazquez, Goya, Murillo, Picasso, Baldessari, Abramovic, Alÿs, Stravinsky, lots of writers, mostly Russians, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Tolstoy. But I guess to such an amazing proposition, I should go a little further, a poets in the Aztec court, because living it would be more different than anything I could read about.
3 What is your favourite ‘ism’?
Primitivism
4 What was the most intelligent thing that someone said or wrote about
your work?
I’m not sure, but my favourite comment anyone every made about my work was that I appeared like a young Marina Abramovic, which gave me confidence that I have presence.
5. And the dumbest?
“I love that witchy stuff.” So generic.
6 Do you care what your art costs? State your reasons!
Yes, but I couldn’t make it a deciding factor in what I chose to make. Why? Probably to my detriment I’m not financially driven enough, but I didn’t decide to make art to get rich.
7 What are the three big ideas that you would like your work to express?
I have had some interesting encounters in my life, which wet my pallette for the occult and I use my art practice as a method to investigate this subject.
I studied art history and have a special place in my heart for christian and primitive art. I’m a bit obsessed with the idea of the sacred origins of art and things like paleolithic fertility goddess figures carved from stone that would be burried with the crops to bring a bountiful harvest. Simple objects entrusted with such grand tasks, objects imbued with powers. I want my art to work in this way
and that is definitely how I treat the work I make, contemporary votive objects and reliques.
I make art because I have to. It purifies my soul and brings me joy,
and I want to share that with you!
(hope that answers your question!)
8 How do you start the process of making work?
Usually in a book. A couple words well placed that make me feel I’ve touched something bigger than myself. Sometimes, just an image or a memory. Although it’s not something I put in the foreground there is often a sort of biographical thread in my work.
9. What’s next for you?
I am currently in Manchester performing in the show 11 Rooms at the Manchester International Festival in a Marina Abramovic piece and a Joan Jonas Piece, while I prepare for Ubi Sunt! After I’m heading the Amalfi coast for some much needed rest!
10.If you could ask yourself one question what would it be ? and what
would be the answer ?
why do i have to answer questions like this?
gracemorganpardo.wordpress.com/
UBI SUNT at The Old Chapel The Old Chapel Asylum Road, London, SE15 2SQ
29th July – 14th August 2011
