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Liam Gillick Phantom Structures February 11 – March 19, 2016 Opening Reception: Thursday, February 11 Casey Kaplan is pleased to present Phantom Structures, an exhibition of new work by Liam Gillick. This exhibition consists of two bodies of work in which Gillick demonstrates the disparities and harmonies between the abstract and conceptual investi- gations at the core of his practice. The first is a series of wall texts executed in pale, shimmering vinyl, which act as the framework for the exhibition. Since the 1990s Gillick’s development of reappearing narratives concerning notions of functional and aesthetic exchange has become central to his practice, often forming the engine for a body of work. Varying from early statements of intent and written equa- tions regarding the rationalization of production versus consumption to the suggestion of various mise-en-scènes, with refer- ences to late 19th century utopian writing, the works are a process of continuous reinterpretation. Gillick merges histories with an ever-shifting present, revealing a renewed outlook on his own work and the exhibition as form. Providing varying degrees of insight, the phantom texts gently guide the viewer through the parallel structures in the exhibition that exist as manifestations of a single thought or idea. The text work Afragmentoffuturehistory (2002) comes from Gillick’s rewriting of Gabriel Tarde’s “Underground Man” (1905), which updated Tarde’s provocative vision of a post-apocalyptic underground world focused entirely on philosophy and art. The work was also used as the title for his Turner Prize exhibition in 2002. A piano and black snow… (2010) refers directly to the artist’s contribution to the performance-based exhibition, Il Tempo del Postino, in 2006. A Yamaha digital grand player piano performed the artist’s attempt to play the Portuguese folk song “Grândola, Vila Morena” from memory - the song that played on the radio to signal the beginning of the Portuguese revolution in 1974. Black snow fell silently onto the piano while the sound only activated when there was an unexpected pause in the flow of the event. The second component of the exhibition is a new series of abstract structures. Powder-coated aluminum and transpar- ent Plexiglas platforms, screens, corrals and barriers are rooted in a questioning of the aesthetic of contemporary control systems. The works highlight a tension between the ideological norms of our built environment and how this quietly guides human behavior. The most iconic structures in the exhibition, a new series of Discussion Platforms, have remained essen- tial to the artist’s practice for 20 years. Beginning in 1996, these works designate zones to face up to the visual language of renovation, strategy, and development. Initially taking form as panels of Plexiglas in aluminum frameworks fixed to the wall or propped up by poles, in documenta X (1997) a large platform was suspended directly from the ceiling and became a tran- sitional structure in one of the main exhibition spaces. In 2010, a large site-specific Discussion Platform was constructed as a link between a workplace, Centene Plaza, and its neighboring parking garage in Clayton, MO. Tinted glass panels swathe passersby with wide bands of color. Most recently in 2014, a large-scale multi-colored platform was installed at The Con- temporary Austin’s Laguna Park. Standing on the banks of Lake Austin it exists as a structure isolated from the language of post-industrial service economies. Phantom Structures explores the ongoing relationships in Gillick’s work between contemplation and theory in tension with the foundational logic established by his physical structures. By developing a language of abstraction rooted in continual renova- tion, Gillick’s work endeavors to expose both the disparities and ties between modernist ideals of a refined aesthetic and the behavioral realities that result from endless development. Within this, the larger aesthetic structural framework of today, Gillick seeks to revisit the dysfunctional aspects of Modernism and provide a renewed approach to abstraction. REVIEWS LIAM GILLICK AT CASEY KAPLAN BY Alex Greenberger Through March 19 Liam Gillick, ‘Phantom Structures,’ 2016, installation view. n the 20 years since he burst onto the international art scene, Liam Gillick has been loosely affiliated I with the YBAs and the relational aesthetics contingent, but this British artist doesn’t fall cleanly into either group. His work is more cerebral than that of other YBAs, and denser and more grounded than the relational-aesthetics adherents. So where does Gillick fit? The simple answer is: nowhere. As this Casey Kaplan exhibition, titled “Phantom Structures,” makes clear, Gillick’s work was ahead of its time—more like what younger artists are doing today than what his mid-career colleagues are producing. The artist’s predilection for sans-serif gibberish, printed here in the form of vinyl wall text, persists, as do his Donald Judd–inspired Plexiglas sculptures. The pristine coldness of the installation evokes a dysfunctional office space. Gillick has written extensively about capitalism, produc- tion, and consumption, and it’s easy to fall into a rabbit hole of art theory when thinking about his work. One could spend hours pondering whether Gillick is refer- ring to Constructivism or Minimalism, or whether his text works are intended to be critical of corporate language. However far-out its ideas may be, this show feels very much of the here and now. “Phantom Structures” seems to reflect a contemporary kind of business: the tech startup. Consider, for example, the lemon-yellow, ma- roon, and pine-green Plexiglas sculptures lined up in the gallery, and then consider the fanciful colors that dot the offices of Google, Facebook, and Apple. The titles, too, are revealing: Affiliations Screen (2016), a tower of pale- blue pieces of Plexiglas, may refer to computer screens, while Growth Elevation (2016), a series of unevenly sized red rods, calls to mind a bar graph from a PowerPoint slide. With its lack of electronics and screens, Gillick’s work is fairly analog. It is now the job of younger artists to move Liam Gillick, Afragmentoffuturehistory, 2002, glittered vinyl, 57⅛ x 78 Gillick’s work in a more digital direction—for example, inches, installation view. Simon Denny and DIS, whose Internet-inspired installations also mimic corporate offices unsuited to productivity. In that sense, Gillick’s work has been predictive, and one wonders if there isn’t still more to learn from his art. Greenberger, Alex, “Reviiews: Liam Gillick at Casey Kaplan”, Artnews, February 26, 2016 LIAM GILLICK PHANTOM STRUCTURES INTERVIEW BY KATHLEEN HEFTY Photography by Clement Pascal Scorpion and Und et Felix, Installation view at Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York, 2012 Organised, methodical, pragmatist. Form law to art school, Liam Gillick take us to his world made of art galleries and architectural models. For more than two decades, Liam Gillick has created installations and environments in galleries, muse- ums, and site-specific locations throughout the world, drawing attention to concerns relating to produc- tion and consumption. His practice, in its entirety, extends far beyond the confines of physical context, consisting of an interconnected web of text, sculpture, writing, and curating preoccupied with the spatial and the social. The duality of his artistic output is no more apparent than in Phantom Structures, on view at Casey Kaplan Gallery in New York City through March 19, 2016. This exhibition of new work incorpo- rates text-based works that respond to issues the artist has addressed and continued to explore over the past 15 years, presenting a framework that traces Gillick’s varied positions since the 1990s in the form of artist statements, essays, and other texts. Prior to the opening of Phantom Structures, Kathleen Hefty sat down with Gillick to discuss the production process, curating, and his days as an activist in university. KH For the exhibition you’re opening at Casey Kaplan in February, as you’re planning the process, how far ahead do you go into production? LG Everything I do is based on material reality. I’m really a materialist. On the computer, I work with simu- lated gravity and address reality of weight and structure – in a really concrete way. I have a precise meth- od when working on exhibitions. I approach the exhibition as an idea, rather than a collection of individual art works. I’m always thinking about the architecture more than I’m thinking about anything else. I make very detailed computer models of the space, no matter where it is – even if it’s a garage in the middle of nowhere. It’s a bit of a distraction, like when you end up reading the newspaper because you’ve used it to protect the floor when painting the walls. I’m actually just doing a task, which is pretty mundane, but it appeals to my brain. I start by making an architectural model and that’s the time for thought and re ection. KH Production is an integral part of your work. Who produces the actual work? LG It depends. If I’m working in a specif- ic environment I want to work with local people because they know the working conditions – like I did in Istanbul this year. It also means I get to meet new people. At other times I work with the same per- son over and over again who is based in Berlin. I’ve worked with him for more than 15 years. KH When it all comes together in the space, does it change? LG No, very rarely. The work should be exactly the way I planned it while thinking alone. Occasionally, I’ll do things where I throw away all those rules. But, I don’t like to improvise.

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