Aidas
Bareikis
Doron Solomons
IBID PROJECTS
210 Cambridge Heath Rd
Unit 4 London E29NQ UK
11 September - 10 October 2004
Preview
Friday 10 September 6.30-8.30pm
“Consistently, traces of meaning-making mechanisms range from personal
anecdote supplied by the artist, art historical references and the poetics
of titles, to the sociological connotations of technology, the future,
and trash. But these things - manifested as intimations of a post-apocalyptic
condition, chaos, the slippery idea of formlessness, and less abstractly,
sci-fi tropes, post-Soviet mayhem, war, Rococo, and the bedlam of consumerism
- bob up, are drowned out by their own unstable, self-negating structure,
and then once again resurface. Overall, there is fluidity from assemblage
to assemblage, if only in the contradiction of fractured, almost schizophrenic
barrages of meaning somehow warped into chromatic unity. But amidst the
mess, such contradictions are tidily mirrored by our own: what is anxiety
inducing also manages to entrance”. (Rachel Kushner)
A. Bareikis, "Untitled", 2004
La chance de la vie by Aidas Bareikis is a looming gangling body of puppets,
masks, paint, junk and objet trouve. From disparate sources, this assemblage,
a nod to the spirit of the 60’s junk art, is an accumulation of
strange theatrical components that have the look of characters from a
totem pole. Brought together, but spilling in to the space, these objects
seem like a majestic carving of a ritual come to life. Explosions of form
and colour hang in space, as if suspended in some limbo between here and
another world. The articles are claimed from indefinable sources and transformed
into a new material, a kind of tapestry in space, where images of exotic
cultures and spiritual symbolism are woven to form one giant hanging sarcophagus.
Like gang of zombies and phantoms remnants of civilisation, collectively
refer to contemporary violence and terrorism.
The
video Inventory begins with a shot of the artist, Doron Solomons, announcing
to the camera: “Let me introduce myself. My name is Doron Solomons,
I have decided to arrange an inventory, a list of all the things I own”.
Curiously his list of possessions includes his wife and daughters, and
continues (assumingly in order of value) – the dog, the laundry
machine, the video, the TV, the tapes, the kitchen tools and so on. Solomons
counts his possessions in a sombre tone, as a methodical prison warder
might as he confiscates the inmates possessions before incarceration.
Once the rather short list is complete, the narrator’s serious tone
is undermined by humour as he proclaims ”I found out that all of
my possession sums up in two minutes, so I’ve decided to show it
again” – and shows all his possessions again but in a faster
pace, without sound. Both humour and pathos come into play in this D.
Solomons "Inventory", video, 2002
dddexercise of categorisation.
Aidas Bareikis
was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, and lives and works in New York. He has
shown at Leo Koenig Gallery, NY, and internationally. Doron Solomons was
born in London, UK, and lives and works in Tel Aviv, Israel. He has had
solo exhibitions in Tel Aviv and participated in the 50th Venice Biennale.
The exhibition
is generously supported by The Embassy of Israel in London.
IBID Projects
is open Thursday - Sunday, 12 - 6pm, and by appointment. Please contact
the gallery for further information on +44 (0)208 983 4355 / info@ibidprojects.com
/ www.ibidprojects.com
Next exhibition:
Christopher Orr, 13 October - 21 November. Catalogue available.
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