Double A-Side curated by Ken Pratt
Invited Artists: Heidi Kilpelainen/HK 119 (FI/UK), Janine Rostron/PlanningToRock (UK/DE), Angie Reed (USA/IT/DE), Caron Geary/Cantankerous (UK) Ursula Mayer (AS), Martin C. de Waal (NL), De Humobisten (NL), Steve Claydon (UK), Mario Mentrup & Volker Sattel (DE), Tai Shani (ISR/UK), Rob Churm (UK) en Maaike Schoorel (NL).
"Double A-Side" is collaboration between Artis, Centre for Fine Art, Stedelijk Museum 's-Hertogenbosch and The Boulevard Theatre Festival.
Details: Artis Website
Interact:Double A-Side myspace
PRESS RELEASE
Double A-Side is a project that concerns itself with the phenomenon of artists who are recognized as both visual artists and pop musicians. Taking as it's starting point the phenomenon of visual artists who are also –or have been- pop musicians, it has been set up around a rather anthropological framework. The artists have been invited on the basis of fulfilling certain criteria that we can take as evidence of their being recognised in both the pop music and visual art spheres, for example, a history of performing as a paid musician and a history of showing in visual arts institutions.
This phenomenological gaze is almost the reverse of many approaches to making group exhibitions. Instead of inviting artists on the basis of their work containing common elements or practices to illustrate a theme or elaborate a predetermined hypothesis arising from within the work itself, the starting point here is the cohort that fulfil the criteria; a selection of artists that we can reasonably consider 'double talents'.
Thus, apart from the group of invited artists itself, Double A-Side is not about using artworks as an illustration or elaboration of a specific argument or position. Reflecting on the individual and overall output of these 'double talents', the approach is almost one of a Darwinian classification; a crypto-scientific ordering of some strands or themes that might run through the work of a diverse group of artists who happen to share a history of operating as both pop musicians and visual artists.
The resulting exhibition project places their works within very broad themes at each location: works in SM-s follow the themes of architecture, decorative arts, modernism and art historical contexts; the works in CBK trace the use of formal concerns in their output; and the works at Artis pick up on the themes of pop culture and popular forms.
A separate element to the project – The Double A-Side Salo(o)n- featuring live music performances by a number of the included artists offers the possibility for the viewer to consider their visual art work in the light of who they are as performing artists.
Do the strands and themes that emerge from within this sampling of visual artists relate to the fact that they are also musicians? And if so, how? We might all too readily see how some of the works dealing with music iconography make that connection. Not that their take on this iconography is simplistic. In many cases we see the traces of conceptualism putting a distinct twist on the pop imagery.
For example, how then do we explain the preoccupation with mid-twentieth century modernism running through the work of a number of these artists who neither collaborate in making their visual art nor share a commonality in the kind of pop music they make? We are left with a sense that there is something attractive to them in the now apparently naïve idealism of these 20th century modernist movements. With the possibility of a gesamtkunstwerk for a brave new world, might they not appeal to artists wanting to work in more than one creative discipline?
And, by offering the experience of their live and recorded music, the viewer is hopefully urged not only to consider the context in which these artists make their respective visual and musical works but also to consider some of the practices and strategies - practical, promotional, industrial- that might be required to produce both outputs. Double A-Side attempts to use a structure of an imposed ordering of the work of these very different artists to prompt reflection and discussion on the work of some who have managed to successfully bridge the often separate visual art and pop music worlds.
OPENING TIMES:
The exhibitions open at SM-s at 15:00 and Artis at 19:30 on Saturday 4 August 2007. Live performance in Artis by HK119. The exhibition at CBK is open on the 6 August 2007, subsequent to The Double A-Side Salo(o)n.
A discussion, "Double A-Side: Visual Artist or Pop Musician?" takes places at CBK at 15:00 on 5 August. Panelists include Angie Reed (artist) Ken Pratt (curator Double A-Side), Bart Rutten (curator, SM-s), Martin C. de Waal (artist) and Heidi Kilpelainen/HK 119 (artist).
The Double A-Side Salo(o)n takes place on Sunday 5 August at the Centre for Fine Art with a performance stage featuring live music performances by Cherry Mash Cherry, Angie Reed, HK 119, Feral (Cantakerous) and Planning To Rock. Doors open at 20:00. It's a salo(o)n. There's a bar!
Background illustrations are from the 'AA side Popster Poster', 2007, Jemima Brown.
"Double A-Side" is collaboration between Artis, Centre for Fine Art, Stedelijk Museum 's-Hertogenbosch and The Boulevard Theatre Festival.
The project has been made possible with the support of The Prince Bernhard Fund for Culture, The Province of North Brabant and Foundation for Music in Brabant (BRAM), and loans from Collection Arne Austrheim (Oslo), Collection GFL (Paris), Maria Mineta, Boris van Berkum and Catharine Somzé.
Steven Claydon courtesy of Hotel (London) & Galerie Dennis Kimmerich (Düsseldorf)- Rob Churm courtesy of Sorcha Dallas Contemporary Art (Glasgow)- Ursula Mayer, Heidi Kilpelainen & Angie Reed courtesy of The Agency Contemporary (London)- Tai Shani courtesy of Maria Mineta (Brussels)- Martin C. de Waal courtesy of Torch Gallery (Amsterdam)
Special Thanks: Kunstlerhaus Vienna- Chicks On Speed Records (Munich)- One Little Indian Records (London)- MAMA (Rotterdam)
