Sidney Cooper Gallery ADAM CHODZKO DESIGN FOR A FOLD SECONDARY LEARNING PACK 16 OCT – 21 NOV 2015 ADAM CHODZKO 2013 We are Ready for your Arrival [Detail] (2013 at Raven Row, Londo, Two person exhibition with Iain Baxter.) Sculpture, video, drawing and photography, exploring manifestations of the unconscious relationships between COVER IMAGE individuals and groups; their excesses, displacements and disappearances. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Adam Chodzko’s art explores the interactions and possibilities of human behaviour. Exhibiting internationally since 1991, Chodzko works across media, from video installation to subtle interventions, with a practice that is situated both within the gallery and the wider public realm. His work investigates and invents possibilities of collective imagination in order to reveal the realities and fantasies that might emerge from the processes of engagement his practice evolves. Design for a Fold is a new installation incorporating many of Chodzko’s works made ‘locally’ since 2001, mapping his particular engagement with diverse places, times and communities around where he lives and works in Whitstable, Kent, alongside new work which seeks to root, or fold, the idea of the local within another, apparently remote, alien and distant place; Beppu, Japan. Chodzko proposes a new understanding of Kent, that questions assumptions of who, what, when and where we might be. Design for a Fold suggests, through a recontextualising of his archive of artwork, new, dynamic and global connections that weave together the real and hidden with collective mythology and imagination. This exhibition has been kindly supported by the Arts Council England and the Elephant Trust. 03 CV ADAM CHODZKO Adam Chodzko (born 1965) is a contemporary British artist, exhibiting internationally. His practice uses a wide range of media, including video, installation, photography, drawing and performance. Chodzko studied at University of Manchester, BA (Hons) History of Art, 1985–88 and Goldsmiths College, London, MA Fine Art, 1992–94. Since 1991, Chodzko has exhibited at numerous venues around the world including Tate Britain; Tate St.Ives; Venice Biennale; Royal Academy; Ikon Gallery; Henry Moore Institute; Yorkshire Sculpture Park; Istanbul Biennial; Benakie Museum, Athens and Folkestone Triennial. Adam has also been shortlisted for this year’s acclaimed Jarman Award. SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 2015 Great Expectations, Guildhall Museum, Rochester 2013 Benaki Museum, Athens Marlborough Contemporary 2002 Fabrica, Brighton Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona Plains Art Museum, Fargo, North Dakota Cubitt, London 2001 Sandroni.Rey Gallery, Venice, California Galleria Franco Noero, Turin Els Hanappe Underground, Athens 2000 Accademia Britannica, Roma 1999 Galleria Franco Noero, Turin Ikon Gallery, Birmingham 1998 Gallery II, Bradford Northern Gallery of Contemporary SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS: 2015 Private Utopia: Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection. Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand 2014 Rising, National Maritime Museum Alles Maskerade! MEWO Kunsthalle, Memmingen, Germany Les Rencontres Internationales, Paris Time Travel and the Interzone City, Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder. BFI, London. Programme curated by João Onofre, Fuso, Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência, Lisbon Fieldworks. Animal Habitats in Contemporary Art, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Ireland Bergé Collection, Real Círculo Artístico de Barcelona, Loop Festival, Barcelona Somewhat Abstract, Nottingham Contemporary Performance as Sculpture, Uovo festival, Milan Leaping the Fence, Hestercombe, Somerset. Private Utopia: Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection. Tokyo Station Gallery touring to Itami City Museum of Art, Kochi Museum of Art, and Okayama Museum of Art 2013 Assembly: A Survey of Recent Artists’ Film and Video in Britain 2008–2013, Tate Britain. How is it towards the East? pp.8, 26, 27. Calvert 22, London. Because… New commission as part of Schwitters in Britain, Tate Britain, London 2012 Made in Britain – Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection 1980 – 2010, Benaki Museum, Getting it Wrong, Weisses Haus, Vienna* 2011 Again, A Time Machine - Make the Living Look Dead, Bookworks, Spike Island, Bristol Loophole to Happiness, Museum of Contemporary Art, Lodz, & Futura Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague & AMT Projects Bratislava 2010 Cinecity, Brighton festival. Apocalypse Now, Krowswork, Hot Springs Documentary Festival, Oakland, California. Here, There and Everwhere, Towner Gallery, Eastbourne. BLOOD TEARS FAITH DOUBT, Courtauld Gallery, London. Whitstable Biennale, Whitstable, Kent. The Gathering, Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park. 2009 Altogether Elsewhere, Zoo, London* Journeys With No Return, Akbank, Istanbul Biennale*. For the Straight Way is Lost, Athens Biennale* English Lounge, Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing 2008 Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, Barbican Art Gallery, London* Tales of Time and Space, Folkestone Sculpture Triennial, Folkestone, Kent* Print the Legend, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh* 2007 Breaking Step, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade* Gallery Exchange, Neue Alte Brücke, Frankfurt Beyond the Country, Glucksman Gallery, Cork 2006 One Brief Moment, apexart, New York* From There, Bloomberg Space, London Unfinished Business, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade Fire, Galleria Franco Noero, Turin Belief and Doubt, The Aspen Art Museum, Colorado* 05 QUESTIONS TO ADAM CHODZKO BY KENT REFUGEE ACTION NETWORK STUDENTS, WITH ANSWERS, AUGUST 2015 1. WHAT TIME DO YOU START WORK? I wake up early and am alert. I start work straight away. 2. WHO IS ADAM CHODZKO? That is a difficult question to answer. Adam is always changing from life experiences. The man that went to Japan a few months ago is very different to the Adam you see here today. 3. HOW DID YOU BECOME AN ARTIST? I decided at about age 23 to become an artist because I kept telling my friends I wanted to be one. 4. WHERE DO YOU LIVE? I live in Whitstable in Kent. I’ve lived there since 2001. 5. WHO DO YOU LIVE WITH? I live with my wife Gretchen, who is an actress and my two sons Seph, 14 and Clay, 11. 6. WHEN DID YOU START SCHOOL? I started school when I was 5 years’ old. 7. WHEN DID YOU STOP SCHOOL? My formal education stopped in 1994 – 21 years ago. 8. WHY DO YOU LIKE ART? Good question. The freedom it can bring together incredible things in a very simple way without needing other people to help you. 9. WHAT WAS THE FIRST ART YOU DID? Probably when I was about 1 years old with a crayon or pencil. 10. HOW DID YOU GET YOUR IDEA WHEN YOU DID THE ART? They come partly from looking at the world and seeing things I like. Or by hearing some music I want to draw that in a lot too. I use film a lot. I’ve become bad a reading and film is a big influence on me. Quite often conversations I have with my sons will end up in part of an artwork. I often go running to empty my head and to allow stuff to come up. 11. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE COLOUR? Olive green and electric blue (although I don’t wear it). 12. WHEN WERE YOU BORN? I was born in 1965 just outside of London. My father was half Polish and my mother is half Scottish. 13. WHERE DO YOU COME FROM? I come from London although I live in Whitstable. 14. WHEN DID YOU START THIS JOB? I gradually became an artist. I knew I wanted to work in a gallery but I always wanted to make my own work and to work on my own. Making art makes me feel free and I enjoy taking risks. 15. DO YOU LIKE THIS JOB? Yes I do. 16. WHO HELPED YOU TO BECOME AN ARTIST? My parents helped me to become an artist. My father died in 2000 but he had an incredible imagination – he liked to think but wasn’t very practical. My mother is very practical and has a great energy. 17. WHY DO YOU LIKE ART? I like the freedom it can give you. 18. DO YOU LIKE CHIPS? Yes I do! But I try not to eat too many of them; although there is a good chip shop near to where I live. 19. WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY? My family and being with them and my work. I like walking and I like certain foods, like Tom Yum soup. 20. DO YOU LIKE PAINTING? Yes, I started off painting but I hardly paint anymore. I find it quite difficult and I like looking at it. I find it frustrating in that you have to wait for it to dry. 21. WHAT IS YOUR JOB? That’s a difficult question. 22. WHEN DID YOU START ART? My first artwork was when I was about 14 or 15. I was inventing album covers for musicians that I really liked. Before that, I drew a lot of spaceships. My dad used to draw and I drew a lot as a child. 23. WHERE DID YOU LEARN? I did an Art History degree at the University of Manchester and then studied an MA at Goldsmiths in London. 24. WHO HELPED YOU TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL? My parents did. 25. WHAT IS THE KEY TO YOUR SUCCESS? Hard work. Being very true to yourself and what you believe in. Be focused and trust in how strange your work is. It is a slow process. It is a long-term process finding what you believe in. 26. HOW MANY YEARS HAVE YOU BEEN WITH ART? Since I was a young child. OVER TO YOU: What questions would you like to ask Adam? What do you think his answer to your questions might be? Do you think you would like to meet Adam? Are there any answers here that surprise you? Would you like to be in his art – like his sons often are? 07 ADAM CHODZKO: GHOST 2010 Alaskan yellow cedar, western red cedar, Fijian mahogany, oak, ash, olive, walnut, and mixed media. 23”h x 31”w x 22’l Ghost is a kayak; a sculpture as vessel, coffin, bed, costume and camera rig.