Tim Ivison and Julia Tcharfas: 11 May–18 June 2011
Hilary Crisp presents Metropotamia – the inaugural solo exhibition of Tim Ivison and Julia Tcharfas as a collaborative practice.
Download ~ exhibition index
Consisting of a sculptural installation of objects and fragmented architectural proposals, the work makes reference to a legacy of unrealised utopias and cast-off concepts. Ivison and Tcharfas configure the gallery as both building site and post-studio burial ground, traversed by alley cats.
‘Metropotamia’ was one of many rejected titles proposed by Thomas Jefferson for the Ohio Country in the American Midwest, later made lower Michigan in the Land Ordinance Survey of 1784. This mark of frontier optimism, conflated with the fact that lower Michigan is now the regional home of Detroit – the archetypal city of post-industrial decay – creates an ambivalent and uneasy folding of the ideology of progress into the wreckage of the present reality.
The partial follies, damaged models, ephemeral proposals, and temporary treatment of the materials and their juxtaposition on the forensic framework of a grid suggest the tacit configuration of a city of monuments. Constructivist scaffolding and cardboard geodesics are made from material trawled from the remains of local vacated office blocks and demolished council housing, ubiquitous home improvement off-cuts made to stand for ancient totemic structures. The presence of the cats, who both live in and manipulate the space of the installation, warp any steady sense of use value, and emphasize the sense that modernism has been domesticated to the scale of the interior. Utopia is, in the final analysis, a civilizing force, bringing into being new forms of subjectivity.
Tim Ivison (B. 1982) and Julia Tcharfas (B. 1982) live and work in London. Recent exhibitions include (Architecture In Words Only), Hilary Crisp, London (2011); Another Romance, Wight Biennial, UCLA New Wight Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2010); Counter Constructs, Auto-Italia South East, London (2010); Urban Orchard, London Festival of Architecture, London (2010); Cities Methodologies 2010, Slade Research Center, London (2010); Don’t Piss on Me and Tell Me It’s Raining, curated by Bad at Sports, Apex Art, New York, NY (2010); X Artworks in a Straight Line (Seeking the Perfect Sphere), Crisp, London (2010).
Until 18 June. For more information contact ~ gallery@hilarycrisp.com
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Metropotamia evening talks:
June 18, 6-9pm
Rachel Pimm, 6pm
Underlining continuities between the exhibition and her own practice, artist Rachel Pimm will present findings on the relationship between cats and architecture, focusing on built case studies.
http://rachelpimm.tumblr.com/
Eva Lis, 7:30pm
Artist and Gypsy and Roma Support Worker, Eva Lis, will discuss her work and the conditions of gypsy migrants in Poland and the UK. The presentation will focus on the evolution of nomadic architecture in gypsy culture, as well as a 10 min video from Lis’s tour around the M25.
http://www.wilsonwilliamsgallery.com/eva.htm
Space is limited, please rsvp: gallery@hilarycrisp.com
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Installation view, May 2011 ~ Metropotamia ~ Hilary Crisp, London
Installation view, May 2011 ~ Metropotamia ~ Hilary Crisp, London
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