4th May – 1st July 2012
www.siobhandavies.com/grahamgussin
This May Siobhan Davies Dance present a solo exhibition by British artist Graham Gussin curated by Charles Danby, focusing on painting, photography and film as platforms for performance. Gussin’s works are inspired by the drama and suspense of cinema. Using sound, close-up, freeze frame, special effects and title credits, Gussin creates moments which are removed from narrative sequence. The works focus on the building of tension in the run up to an event or moment of drama. Animated Environments opens at Siobhan Davies Studios on 4 May and admission is free.
In Hum (2012), a sound piece set across four speakers, a hum builds in intensity.. Emerging irregularly it echoes the musical scores of film at moments of heightened and impending drama. The large painting Transport (1994) uses sound, in this case the spoken word of the title, to generate an image. Film Poster (2008) is a poster that can be taken away by visitors consisting of a list of possible, or perhaps impossible films. Film (2010) is a moving image version of Film Poster. It adopts the conventions of cinematic title sequences, presenting the text as credits that open or close a film.
Night Street Touch (2005) and Studio Touch (2005) are video works that make the repetitive action of touching an object the focus of the work. A hand animates an object seen by the film camera as it reaches out to touch it. Silver Form (2011) is a series of six photographic works that appear as cinematic still frames. In them, a silver object floats formlessly occupying and animating the mid-ground of the frame. The photographs were taken in Portugal at the hotel where Wim Wenders filmed The State of Things (1982), the story of a film crew who set out to remake Roger Corman’s science fiction film Day the World Ended (1955), but who, due to complications, ended up stranded in an abandoned hotel.
www.siobhandavies.com/grahamgussin
Special off-site event Illumination Rig. Junction of Longville Road and Church Yard Row, Newington Butts, Elephant & Castle SE1Friday 25th May, 4-10pm
Alongside his exhibition, Graham Gussin will present the first London showing of Illumination Rig. Installed close to Siobhan Davies Studios, the work intersects directly with the fast-changing development and regeneration of the Elephant & Castle landscape. Illumination Rig is an ongoing installation of film lights that transforms the environment within which it is set, and has previously been shown at Reculver (2004), Newcastle (2006), Sharjah (2007) and Margate, for the opening of Turner Contemporary (2011).
‘A landscape, arena or situation becomes the subject of the work simply through being lit, it is a way of painting directly onto a landscape- urban or rural, occupied or deserted…’ Graham Gussin
Graham Gussin in conversation with David Chipperfield Sunday 24 June, 2.30pm
As part of the London Festival of Architecture, Jeremy Millar hosts a question led conversation between Graham Gussin and internationally acclaimed architect David Chipperfield. The conversation will explore their respective relationships to architecture within the city and across areas under regeneration, their re-activation of the familiar, and their engagement of audiences across public sites.
About Animated Environments
Animated Environments Part 2: Graham Gussin is the second in a series of three projects curated by Charles Danby for Siobhan Davies Studios that have been supported by Arts Council England. Animated Environments Part 1 was Guy Sherwin’s Movements in Light (16 September – 24 November 2011). The serie will conclude with Animated Environments Part 3 presenting new works by Steven Pippin (28 September – 29 November 2012). Animated Environments examines the active potential of images as still frames of time within the fields of photography, film and event. Guy Sherwin’s Movements in Light included live 8mm and 16mm performance presentations and the selected screening of films from the LUX archive in a presentation hosted by South London Gallery.
