Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Brighton ongoing from 1 January
Reviewed by: Deborah Schultz
The Little Paradise Garden – Part 2 marks the development of a project by Barbara Ryan that began in the Galerie Assel, Berlin, in 1992. The first part explored the safety of Eden, the original paradise garden; the second part is located in the safety of the artist's house, in a room that is somewhere between a studio and a gallery space. The whole project manifests the progression of a personalised world view. The work on display will evolve throughout the year; just as ideas self-generate and will develop, so the structure of the exhibition reflects the artist's working method. Visitors are required to remove their shoes and don soft slippers beforehand, and only one is permitted to enter the space at a time. These conditions lead the visitor to become more aware of their own presence, and to enter into a more direct dialogue with the work. Thus visitors become participants who are welcome to contribute and the artist decides whether to incorporate or discard these contributions.
The subtle combinations of the exhibited photographs, writings, objects, drawings and ephemera all form part of the overall project and are intricately inter-related, both physically – in a layering of elements provisionally pinned to the wall – and conceptually – in a continual process of repetition and variation. The whole seems to relate not only to the present and continuing working process, but also to the workings of memory as images and words emerge and re-emerge in different combinations and with varying modifications. The space acts like a filter as ideas are digested and elements are added, removed and altered: both worked upon and displayed simultaneously. Fragmented narratives wind their way around the space, touching upon religion and philosophy, history and belief.
In recent years many artists have been addressing the relationship between art and the domestic. From Rachel Whiteread's 1992 Untitled (House), to the Tate's 1999 collaboration with Homebase, the domestic has played an increasingly frequent role in works that examine the relationship between private and public spaces. During May 2000, Ryan collaborated with Louise Bristow, Jonathan Gilhooly, Sarah Hardy and Dominique Rey to produce 'Parlour', in which visitors were invited to enter a private apartment. The installation was such that it was not clear where the artifice ended and the existing home began; as the boundary between the two dissolved, visitors were confused, conscious of their interaction with the contents of a space to which they would not normally be permitted access.
Situated in the artist's home, The Little Paradise Garden – Part 2 addresses these issues, and also considers the relationship between the site of production and the site of display as the two are merged. Rather than exhibit existing artworks within a domestic space, these exhibitions negotiate the domestic setting as an integral part of the work.
Writer detail:
DEBORAH SCHULTZ
is a lecturer at Central St Martins College of Art and Design.
Venue detail:
No one has commented on this article yet, why not be the first?
To post a comment you need to login
Back to top