André Stitt Living in the Material World Exhibition
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andré stitt living in the material world exhibition Published by gallery/ten gallery/ten contemporary art gallery/oriel gelf cyfoes 13th october - 19th november 2016 http://www.gallery-ten.co.uk 23 windsor place [email protected] @gallery_ten cardiff cf10 3by © 2016 andré stitt and gallery/ten www.andrestitt.com installation All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys- cardiff contemporary tem, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, 10th october - november 12th 2016 mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the pub- lishers, artist, and photographers. school of art & design cardiff metropolitan university The authors have asserted their right to be identified as authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. western avenue, cardiff cf5 introduction The gallery is pleased to present ‘Living in This, Stitt’s second solo exhibition at the Stitt’s practice moves at a quick pace, with synthetic is celebrated through more con- the Material World’, a major solo exhibition gallery, sees a clear and concise body of Stitt prone to comment ‘I’ve moved on from temporary substances - free from the heavy by artist André Stitt. work which feels like a definite and defining this’ when viewing his work on the gallery traditions of oil and canvas - fitting for the point in his practice. Inevitably, comparisons wall. This is testament to his astonishing futuristic optimism of the era. Tinged with a The gallery has represented Stitt since 2013, are drawn between Stitt’s 2014 exhibition work ethic alongside the practical implica- dystopian air, the concrete structures and with his art not only becoming a staple in the ‘Dark Matter’ which, at first glance, seem tions of using such quantities of oil paint, forgotten public art of the time are used here gallery’s exhibitions, but also in the collec- worlds apart. Dominant throughout ‘Dark which ask an unavoidably long drying time. by Stitt as another catalyst for his overarch- tions of many of our clients. To the gallery’s Matter’ was the prominent use of thick oil Visually, the development can be traced ing philosophy - as did the suggested mole- audience, his name is synonymous with paint on canvas, layered and punctured with through artworks produced since his 2014 cules of ‘Dark Matter’. That is, the realization, abstraction, copious paint (with a clear love clusters of repeated circular motifs, the form show. This timeline of progress through understanding and exploration of the impact for the material) and a certain fervent energy of which suggested atoms, molecules and Stitt’s recent practice reveals a significant the world around us has on ourselves - the permeating from each work exhibited. galaxies. ‘Living in the Material World’ feels turning point - the shift from canvas to seen and unseen; from the atom to the gal- - quite literally - lighter, flatter, with transpar- wood panel and from his use of oil to acrylic axy; the past-present-future all jumbled and ent planes of angular architectural themes. paint. The switch in his choice of paint has inseparable; the tangible and abstract. resulted in a quicker way of working, al- But, scratch a little deeper, and the change lowing for thinner application, thus creating Stitt presents us with images that are simul- is not so dramatic. depth through multiple translucent lay- taneously familiar and unfamiliar and, pro- ers. The synthetic qualities of acrylic paint pelled by his enduring love of paint, beckons also lends itself to the emergence of a new us to look through the layers of the painted theme in Stitt’s work - his personal interest surface. in brutalist architecture and the ‘new future’ of post world war society. Hinting at man- Cat Gardiner, gallery director. made materials and Formica finishes, the 6 7 Theme From The Regular Shape of Forever acrylic on canvas, 190 x 300cm, 2016 Synthetic Model For A Post-Capitalist Economy In A Parallel Universe mixed media painting installation, 2015-16 An embodied memory has an essential role as the basis of remembering a living in the material world space or place. We transfer all cities and towns we have visited, all places we have recognised into the incarnate memory of our body.2 The architecture of the military bunker is The civic centre of the new town of I have recently been investigating how paint- In so doing I wish to make paintings that transposed, reconfigured and positioned as ing can be experienced as an ‘extended’ seem to arrive as if from another time and 1 Craigavon in Northern Ireland is aligned with quasi-monumental edifice. practice through installed groups and con- place; a potential dissident space where all Victor Pasmore’s ‘Apollo Pavilion’ in the new town of Peterlee in England. figurations. The current focus of this work era’s co-exist. The municipal centres of the lost new towns is an exploration of modernist architectural of Britain are celebrated through utopian William Mitchell’s postwar concretopia legacies as a visionary utopian embodiment Here I also reference the work of Philip K. memorials for a future that didn’t arrive. 3 becomes the lost dream of the cosmic of progressive civic, municipal and social Dick and his use of a future-present utopian/ soviet and a territorial memory of teenage engineering. dystopian binary as a means for dismantling Social housing residents committees years in Cwmbran. our perception of ‘reality’. appropriate public sculpture as testimony for The work draws upon the materiality of the a nostalgia of repression. Monumental state sponsored ‘Spomenick’ built environment and its abstract displace- Specifically sited art was viewed as an im- sculptures become places of forgetting ment through art as a memory of forms portant contribution to a new civic and mu- rather than places of remembering. reimagined as a parallel universe. nicipal environment at a local and national In proposing a simulacrum I wish to question level in post-war Britain. In these groups our received notion of authenticity in a world of paintings I reference the mural work of constructed through imperial economies of John Tunnard4 at the Festival of Britain, the power that contribute to national/cultural/ concrete relief work by William Mitchell5 on post-colonial identity made manifest through housing blocks and civic centre’s such as in art and architecture. the new town of Cwmbran6 and Victor Pas- more’s7 brutalist concrete Apollo Pavilion in The ambition is for work that may create a the new town of Peterlee in order to explore sense of recognition counter balanced by a the legacies of art and architecture as a sense of timelessness, loss, longing, discon- modern/futuristic vision for social progress. nection and melancholy. 12 13 Memory, recall, and embodied experiences 1 “Nazi Germany built thousands of fortifications: 5 William Mitchell (born 1925) is an English sculp- Pasmore’s choices in this area proved controversial; are employed to interrogate issues of politi- bunkers, observation posts, anti-aircraft posts, U- tor, artist and designer. He is best known for his the centerpiece of the town design became an ab- large-scale concrete murals and public works of art stract public sculpture structure of his design, the cal, economic and devotional power, sys- boat pens, flak towers. There were altogether about 60 types. They were mostly built by the Todt Organi- from the 1960s and 1970s. His work is often of an Apollo Pavilion. temic corruption, utopian ideologies, and the sation and they were mostly designed by the archi- abstract or stylised nature. His use of heavily mod- He represented Britain at the 1961 Venice Biennale architecture of neo-human control in a cha- tect and engineer Friedrich Tamms. He described eled surfaces created a distinctive language for his was participating artist at the Documenta ll 1959 in otic universe. This often reveals itself as a them as “cathedrals of artillery”. “To shelter is to predominantly concrete and glass reinforced con- Kassel, Germany and was a trustee of the Tate Gallery, searching out of small elusive moments and pray.” “They are true monuments to God” Art and ar- crete sculptures. After long years of neglect, many donating a number of works to the collection. chitecture were propagandist instruments.” Meades, of William Mitchell’s remaining works in the United unconscious dilemmas that may implicate us 8 Jonathan (2014) Bunkers Brutalism and Bloodymind- Kingdom are now being recognised for their artistic Atemporality or timelessness is manifested in paint- in a larger communal, collective or cosmo- edness, BBC television broadcast 16th Feb. 2014. merit and contemporary historic value, and have ing through the reanimating of historical styles or by logical narrative. been granted protective and listed status. recreating a contemporary version of them, sampling 2 Pallasmaa, Juhani (2005) The eyes of the Skin: motifs from across a timeline of 20th-century art in Architecture and the Senses, London, John Wiley and 6 Following the passing of the 1946 New Towns’ Act a single painting or across an oeuvre, or by radically Paint is utilised as a synthetic transmitter of Sons Cwmbran was established as a new town in 1949 to paring down an artistic language to its most basic experience that reflects the historical uncer- provide new employment opportunities in the south archetypal form. tainty of time and place proposing contem- 3 Philip Kindred Dick (1928 –1982) was an American Wales. porary genre painting as a transformative writer, whose published works mainly belong to the The longest established employer in Cwmbran is bis- cuit maker Burton’s Foods who employ 1000 people medium with redemptive potential. genre of Science Fiction.