EN ELLEN  GALLAGHER & EDGAR CLEIJNE

LIQUID

02.02 INTELLIGENCE28.04 Ellen Gallagher is one of today’s most The exhibition’s title Liquid Intelligence prominent artists. She was born in port is borrowed from an essay by conceptual city of Providence, Rhode Island, USA, artist Jeff Wall. It alludes to the chemical, in 1965, and works and lives between transformative process of analogue Rotterdam and New York since 2003. photography, the quasi-controlled process of the darkroom, involving This exhibition is a first survey in the liquids and washing, in opposition to Lowlands of Gallagher’s painterly notions of transparency and proof production in some twenty works, shown associated with modernist documentary together with two of the collaborative photography. The intelligence of GALLAGHER film installations made together with liquid environments and aquatic, Edgar Cleijne. As such, it is a unique marine transformations touch upon moment for the WIELS audiences to the aesthetic of much of Gallagher’s WORKS THROUGH discover a practice which is cherished and work: the biomorphic obscured worlds discussed in the framework of decolonial of the submarine and bio-molecular and Anthropocene debates worldwide. traces of millennial histories. The Gallagher works through popular film installations by Gallagher & POPULAR narratives and mythologies of African Cleijne capture the disruptions of the American histories while also challenges technology and engineering that the paradigms of modernist painting, such as Anthropocene imposes on the planet. objecthood, frontality or transparency. NARRATIVES AND She opens them up with techniques of fragmentation, carving and layering which introduce means of perception that address opacity, embodying, memorizing MYTHOLOGIES and the fluid interchangeability of materials and beings. OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORIES WHILE ALSO CHALLENGES PARADIGMS OF MODERNIST

PAINTING Check the if you visit the exhibition with kids FLOOR + 3 of adding, extracting, resurfacing. of resurfacing. adding, extracting, process or alchemical an archaeological into gesture pictorial the transforming materialism, of American mirror black a into enamel and rubber, paper turns darkness of the Gallagher surfaces. into consumed viewer the of reflection glossed the from apart revealed immediately is little where enamel gloss high- with surface the coats she Finally, surface. over the rubber black moulds then and ablade with surface the incises She audiences. Black for intended magazines from pages painted and torn with it layers and canvas to the paper of penmanship grid aloose adheres first She this. reveal work her to make develops she technique the and practice, to her central are embeddedness and Materiality here. shown are of these aselection asubjectivity, and a colour as blackness investigate that paintings Gallagher produced monochrome Over the course of several years, aCave in battling Kapsalon Phantasie, Eleganza, Negroes Kapsalon Untitled, Monster II, Wonder, you Dance I, Monster you Dance Black Paintings: ❶ 1  Ellen Gallagher geciteerd in Morgan in geciteerd Gallagher Ellen

, 2001, p. 26–7. p. , 2001, Gallagher. for of inspiration source arecurrent been have comics Kat Krazy whose Herriman, George cartoonist twentieth-century early- the from borrowed of landscapes parts are that forms abstract features You (2000) Dance Monster diptych The origins. Eastern Middle and African street-food with Rotterdam of popular name the also is but Dutch in barbershop means of hair. ‘Kapsalon’ clusters and braids disembodied forms, of open Kapsalon Wonder (2015) is comprised a little.” a only see you side the at stand you if then and blank go they of them front in stand you –if them reading Even when refusal. of akind as paintings black the see really …I work the misreading or reading were people to how areaction asense in were black inscrutable. The black paintings of a idea this in interested really “I’m works: saysthese of Gallagher different. as exist to simply but understood, completely be to not opaque, to be the oppressed should be allowed to opacity: right the demands Glissant of domination. systems to subvert movements social for potential radical For this has reason, opacity the of unknowability. aform as of opacity notion the and black colour the explores Glissant Edouard philosopher and writer (1990), of Relation the Poetics text his In 1

of Interstate 10, the Claiborne neutral

❷ ❹ ❻ ground was a lush, oak canopy-covered Negroes Battling in a Cave (2016) Watery Ecstatic (2001 – ongoing) An Ecstatic Draught of Fishes (2018) corridor lined with Black-owned is a recent group of four paintings. In this delicate series, Gallagher carves Gallagher’s most recent work, made businesses on either side. Their provocative title is a citation of into the pulp of thick watercolour paper, a especially for this exhibition, translates handwritten marginalia found during the technique that she refers to as her version the underwater world imagined by the Today, while spliced by the interstate, restoration of one of Kazimir Malevich’s of scrimshaw: the practice of engraving Detroit-based electronic music duo it is a popular gathering place during iconic Black Square painting. Taking the bones and teeth of marine mammals Drexciya, inhabited by the descendants of Mardi Gras and Second Lines. Cleijne Russian Suprematism as a target, by whalers. The art historian Robin D. G. the Africans who were thrown overboard and Gallagher’s installation is comprised Gallagher challenges early Modernism’s Kelley – who has long followed Gallagher’s from slave ships, such as the Zong, during of a 16mm film created along I-10 in self-proclaimed purity with her own take work and contributes a new text to the its crossing or ‘Middle Passage’ of the New Orleans and beyond, that traces on Malevich’s Black Square, believed to forthcoming WIELS catalogue – describes Atlantic in 1781. the highway as it sweeps from Claiborne be the first ever monochrome abstraction. Watery Ecstatic thus: “Dream-like, avenue soaring over and into the surrealistic drawings evoking exotic fish, Atchafalaya waters near Lafayette, How many colours can you see in the submarine creatures and organisms like Louisiana; and banners based on 70mm works? Is black a colour, according eels, jellyfish, ancient sea creatures and ❼ cyanotype celluloid film negatives. Highway Gothic (2017) to you? strange vegetation. We encounter the These refer simultaneously to early This monumental film installation familiar: disembodied eyes, wigs and lips photographic studies of natural history examines the impact of Interstate attached like barnacles, the masked and specimens and to the murals that Position yourself at different spots Highway 10 on humans and nature. unmasked faces of African people.”2 were painted on the highway’s support in the room. Do you always see the The title refers to a standard columns by the New Orleans African same thing in the paintings? font used for US road signs. The American Museum’s project Restore the installation has been exhibited in New Oaks (2002). 4 ❺ Orleans, Stockholm, Toronto and is Morphia (2008-2012) expanded and adapted for WIELS. ❸ How many different materials can DeLuxe (2004-2005) The series Morphia combine the intimate Highway Gothic uses the Claiborne you see around you? DeLuxe is a portfolio of sixty individually- with the epic, the urban with the oceanic, corridor as a physical and conceptual framed artworks. They feature the ethereal with the physical. The works framework through which to consider advertisements for beauty products emphasize how Gallagher’s shape-shifting Are they connected to one another? the loss of history and culture in New taken from magazines from the 1930s signs bring materiality to both natural and Orleans’ historic 7th Ward and Treme to the 1970s aimed at African American social histories. These hybrid symbols neighbourhoods; highlighting problematic consumers, such as Ebony, Our World evolve and mutate in relation to the urban planning practices, such as the and Sepia. Gallagher has cut and layered viewer’s perception, resembling organic development of the Interstate Highway the adverts, adding plasticine to depict forms such as cells and marine creatures System in the United States in the late the eyes and hairstyles of the models. while also evoking various iconographies 1950s. The implementation of these With the title, she draws ironically on from Africa and its diaspora. Gallagher huge infrastructural overhauls took their the language of advertising to subvert asserts that “a character like a jellyfish toll on urban Black communities, which its original intentions; the word ‘deluxe’ can be made up of several bodies, can were often displaced to make room for appears in various spellings and fonts in exist in different times, can be a character the highways. Prior to the development different places in the work. that is symbolic”.3 GALLAGHER BRINGS MATERIALITY TO BOTH NATURAL AND SOCIAL 2 Robin D. G. Kelley, catalogue Gallagher/Cleijne, WIELS, April 2019. 3 Ellen Gallagher, geciteerd door het , tentoonstellingsgids 'Are We Obsidian?', 2018 HISTORIES 4 Edgar Cleijne, 2017 FLOOR + 4 between ocean and air. and ocean between point touching the upon concentrate or water, into of air dissolution the elongate to serve They abstract. are interludes the narrative, introducing than rather (1851). Moby Dick whale, However,white the about novel his for sequenced Melville that American romantic novelist Herman headings chapter episodic the inspiration as take artists the Here of interlude. kind a as exists to another realm one from of shifting moment This depths. ocean the into water,by descent the the and split water, above surface air ship the the of realm visible the realms: three in exists ship The is cyclical. film the for skeleton or model basic The creatures. sea electric into cormorants the transforming water, the enter birds the where point breaking the to extend animation 3D and analogue using stock film existing the into draw Cleijne and Gallagher end. agruesome than rather landscape extended an is ship air. the the them For in wings their to dry ship's stays the on alight Cormorants zone. intermediary an becomes it ship, of the hold takes elements of the force the As sea. the into dissolve to slowly abandoned have been to appears wreck The Island. of Rhode coast the of off shipwreck of arecent shot a with opens which projection, film a16mm is installation of this centre The Osedax ❽ 5 Edgar Cleijne, unpublished project-document, 2017 (2010)

through or obsolescence loss.” that have become indecipherable, either systems of symbolic nature cryptic and fluidity the including projection, film and slide of the leitmotifs the foreground particles) of paper up made product wood (a MDF processed black of the body pulpy the into excavations These whale. of the skin the mar that scars the and coffin, engraved Queequeg's mapping, reed Polynesian the recall also markings The depths. ocean the into Pequod The whaleship of the descent the map that marks with milled are room projection of the walls surrounding dark “The work: the in Dick to Moby references multi-layered fluid, the evokes Cleijne Edgar slides. glass painted the and film the between flows –and by scavengers consumed are and floor ocean to the have fallen that whales dead for term scientific –the fall whale evokes work The  Inside a fish? In outer space? outer In afish? Inside we? are Underwater? Where 5 ELLEN GALLAGHER & EDGAR CLEIJNE LIQUID INTELLIGENCE 02.02 - 28.04.2019 Launch in April 2019 in April Launch ofsupport Gagosian Gallery. Books, London, with the generous König with collaboration in Published USA). UCLA, at of History professor and (historian Kelley France), Robin and 2, Rennes Université at professor and Elvan Zabunyan (historian, critic art of WIELS), (Director Snauwaert Dirk the exhibition with contributions of during published be will A catalogue PUBLICATION and Hauser & Wirth Gallery &Wirth Hauser and Gallery of Gagosian support special the with organized is exhibition The &Wirth. Hauser and Gallery Gagosian by YorkNew (USA). represented is She in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and works and lives Gallagher Cleijne. Edgar close collaboration with Dutch filmmaker in installations film several produced has she and video, and paper on works Her chosen media include painting, museums. major many of collections permanent the in included is and globally exhibitions group and solo numerous in shown been has work Her (1993). of Art, (1992); School Skowhegan and Massachusetts , Arts, of Fine Kentucky (1989); School of the Museum (1982–84);Ohio Thomas, 70, Fort Studio College, Oberlin attended She Island. Rhode Providence, in 1965 in born artist Ellen Gallagher #LIQUIDINTELLIGENCE BIOGRAPHIES OF THE ARTISTS THE OF BIOGRAPHIES is an African - American African - American an is individual and the state. state. the and individual the between by negotiations enforced landscape, urban the in interventions large-scale on focusses he which in photographic and filmic reportages documentary for known is He culture. and of nature points crossing the in era Anthropocene our of effects the at looks Cleijne imaging, digital and traditional of ends opposite the Merging film. and York photography in works (USA). Cleijne New and (the Netherlands) Rotterdam in lives He (the Eindhoven in Netherlands). Edgar Cleijne is a Dutch artist born 1963 1963 born artist aDutch is EVENTS ELLEN GALLAGHER & EDGAR CLEIJNE LIQUID INTELLIGENCE

 20.03 at 20:00 Lecture of two texts by authors Dalila Hermans and Melat Nigussie, commissioned by Vlaams-Nederlands Huis deBuren

 Screening projections of Wan Pipel (1976) by Dutch-Suriname film director Pim de la Parra

 Look Who’s Talking: Guided tours in the exhibition with special guests

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