Daria Martin – Soft Materials
26 January – 8 March 2005 Wednesday – Sunday 13.00 – 18.00hrs
Opening 25 January 19.00 – 21.00hrs
www.theshowroom.org

The Showroom is delighted to announce that it has commissioned Daria Martin
to make a new 16mm film, Soft Materials, for presentation at the gallery in
January 2005. This will be her first major solo show of new work in London.

Soft Materials was shot in the Artificial Intelligence Lab at the University
of Zurich where scientists research ‘embodied artificial intelligence’. This
cutting edge area of AI produces robots which, rather than being programmed
from the head down by a computer brain, instead learn to function through
the experience of their physical bodies.

Soft Materials introduces the robots to two performers, one man and one
woman, trained in body awareness and acutely sensitive to the nuances of
movement. These performers shed skins of soft fabric, bearing their joints
like the frank structure of a machine, and then, naked, they perform a
series of dances with the robots. Creating intimate relationships that are
in turn tender, funny and eerie, they bend flexible human fantasy around
tough materials.

Soft Materials creates a new image of ‘man and machine’, thus continuing
Martin’s aspiration to revisit the questions of the early Modern period.
However, Soft Materials also connects with 1960’s performance practices,
which honed bodily relationships to physical objects; one inspiration for
the project is Robert Morris’s film, Neoclassical, which depicts an
idealised interaction between his sculptures and two viewers.

Soft Materials, created during what some call the ‘Digital Revolution’, sees
a return to the physical object in an arena of embodied play. Ironically,
the objects in question are technological creations, and ones that mimic our
own animal physicality. Soft Materials takes to a new level Martin’s ongoing
concern with tangible fantasy and the power of artifice.

Daria Martin has exhibited at Hotel, London, and Andrea Rosen Gallery, New
York. Her work has been included in high profile shows such as 100 Artists
See God, ICA, The Moderns, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art,
Turin, Art Now Lightbox, Tate Britain and In the Palace at 4am, Asprey
Jacques.

For further information please contact Kirsty Ogg or Bridget Crone at The
Showroom on 020 8983 4115.

The Showroom is financially assisted by Arts Council England, London Office.

Project supported by The Wellcome Trust, The Moose Foundation for the Arts,
The Elephant Trust, and the AI Lab at the University of Zurich. Special
Thanks to Dr Daniel Bisig and Dr Rolf Pfeifer.

Mary Jane Aladren, Tim Allen, Adelaide Bannerman, Claire Barclay, Jordan
Baseman, Iwona Blazwick, Pavel Büchler, Sarah Carrington, Paul Collett,
Laura Emsley, ezppl, Peter Fillingham, Rose Finn-Kelcey, FlatPack001,
Rebecca Fortnum, Eric Franck, Frieze, General Public Agency, Simon Grant,
Jackie Haliday, Ceri Hand, Margot Heller, Margot & Fergus Henderson, Paul
Hobson, Martin Holman, Claire Hooper, Martin Hopkinson, Matthew Hunt, Sue
Jones, Franz Koenig, Kate MacGarry, Lynn MacRitchie, Anna Milsom, Moose
Foundation for the Arts, Dave Muller, Paul Nicholson, Kristine Nielsen,
Campbell & Mairi Ogg, Harry Onslow, Michael O’Pray, Maureen Paley, Sarah
Pulvertaft, Alison Raftery, Craig Richardson, Signwave, John Slyce, Simon
Starling, Eva Tait, David Thorp, Transmission Gallery, Catherine Ugwu,
Isabel Vasseur, Marc Vaulbert de Chantilly, Grant Watson and White Window
are all actively supporting the work of the gallery by joining The
Showroom's Friends Scheme.

The Showroom 44 Bonner Road E2 9JS UK
T. +44 (0)20 8983 4115 E. tellmemore@theshowroom.org W.
www.theshowroom.org F. +44 (0)20 8981 4112

Nearest tube Bathnal Green on the Central Line. Buses 26, 48, 55, 106,
254, 307, 388, D3, D6. Overground to Cambridge Heath.