Chapter II. Refusal
Raque Ford, Charlotte Houette, David L. Johnson, Dozie Kanu
Raque Ford, Charlotte Houette, David L. Johnson, Dozie Kanu
“There's a vibration, a subtle and fragile heat, that makes a living being particularily delicious. You're extracting life by the mouthful. It's the pleasure of knowing that because of your intent, your actions, this being has ceased to exist. It's the feeling of a complex and precious organism expiring little by little, and also becoming part of you. For always, I find this miracle fascinating. This possibility of an indissoluble union.”
– Agustina Bazterrica, Tender is the Flesh
Chapter II. Refusal is the second iteration amongst a series of three exhibitions that explore different ways in which artists subvert the audience’s gaze to reveal hidden, coded and cannibalised imagery. This exhibition unites the practices of Raque Ford, Charlotte Houette, David L. Johnson and Dozie Kanu, presenting a collection of works fold in on themselves, deliberately evade systems of regulation and contain a moment of refusing or evading standardisation.
– Agustina Bazterrica, Tender is the Flesh
Chapter II. Refusal is the second iteration amongst a series of three exhibitions that explore different ways in which artists subvert the audience’s gaze to reveal hidden, coded and cannibalised imagery. This exhibition unites the practices of Raque Ford, Charlotte Houette, David L. Johnson and Dozie Kanu, presenting a collection of works fold in on themselves, deliberately evade systems of regulation and contain a moment of refusing or evading standardisation.
19.06.24—27.07.24
GIANNI MANHATTAN, Wassergasse 14, 1030 Vienna
> Installation views
“There's a vibration, a subtle and fragile heat, that makes a living being particularily delicious. You're extracting life by the mouthful. It's the pleasure of knowing that because of your intent, your actions, this being has ceased to exist. It's the feeling of a complex and precious organism expiring little by little, and also becoming part of you. For always, I find this miracle fascinating. This possibility of an indissoluble union.”
– Agustina Bazterrica, Tender is the Flesh
Chapter II. Refusal is the second iteration amongst a series of three exhibitions that explore different ways in which artists subvert the audience’s gaze to reveal hidden, coded and cannibalised imagery. This exhibition unites the practices of Raque Ford, Charlotte Houette, David L. Johnson and Dozie Kanu, presenting a collection of works fold in on themselves, deliberately evade systems of regulation and contain a moment of refusing or evading standardisation.
– Agustina Bazterrica, Tender is the Flesh
Chapter II. Refusal is the second iteration amongst a series of three exhibitions that explore different ways in which artists subvert the audience’s gaze to reveal hidden, coded and cannibalised imagery. This exhibition unites the practices of Raque Ford, Charlotte Houette, David L. Johnson and Dozie Kanu, presenting a collection of works fold in on themselves, deliberately evade systems of regulation and contain a moment of refusing or evading standardisation.
At the core of Loiter, an ongoing series by David L. Johnson, is the disturbing reality of rapidly privatising public and social space in NYC. The spiky wall mounted sculptures are examples of hostile architecture and are used by property owners to adorn architectural elements such as hydrants or piping, preventing the general public, but mainly the cities’ unhoused, from sitting and loitering. These forms, which have been have been removed by the artist, are like decommissioned weapons that exist simultaneously in their sculptural presence in the gallery and their absence from public space.
Charlotte Houtte’s painting’s In Vain, In Vain, 2023 and Gleaming the Cube, 2023 each present an image in the midst of shapeshifting away from two dimensions. Her works, consisting of spirals and rippled möbius strips, contort, bend and masticate themselves to reveal an internal space that painting normally only gestures to. In Houtte’s paintings however, the illusion of space becomes a reality and her works contain intricate folding mechanisms that open to reveal its entrails or a cavity at the centre of the painting.
Charlotte Houtte’s painting’s In Vain, In Vain, 2023 and Gleaming the Cube, 2023 each present an image in the midst of shapeshifting away from two dimensions. Her works, consisting of spirals and rippled möbius strips, contort, bend and masticate themselves to reveal an internal space that painting normally only gestures to. In Houtte’s paintings however, the illusion of space becomes a reality and her works contain intricate folding mechanisms that open to reveal its entrails or a cavity at the centre of the painting.
Dozie Kanu’s two sculptures transmuted surveillance footage of heart-space, 2024 and land between spacial encounters with spirit for sport, 2024 occupy the centre of the gallery space. These works, made from fragments of salvaged utilitarian objects, transcend their original purpose. Within Kanu’s practice, salvage can be understood as one of the fundamental structures of thought - an avenue that shapes how we envision a future; simultaneously a principle of accumulation and a critical operation with which to read historically through the accumulated.
Raque Ford’s perspex works started as a dance floor. Her reflective tiles, which contain text from Tonight, a poem written by the artist and laser etched into the surface of the panels, were then walked on and inscribed by the movements of visitors. After the party dispersed, the floor was deconstructed and we are left with clues and incomplete phrases. In this afterlife, visitors, artworks and language are scattered into new constellations and echo the disorienting change of axis and present a new reality, assembled from fragments.
Raque Ford’s perspex works started as a dance floor. Her reflective tiles, which contain text from Tonight, a poem written by the artist and laser etched into the surface of the panels, were then walked on and inscribed by the movements of visitors. After the party dispersed, the floor was deconstructed and we are left with clues and incomplete phrases. In this afterlife, visitors, artworks and language are scattered into new constellations and echo the disorienting change of axis and present a new reality, assembled from fragments.
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