Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition

Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition A presentation of selected works from contemporary artists

Free Guide to the Artworks 26 May - 10 September 2017 York Art Gallery, Exhibition Square, YO1 7EW (Daily 10am - 5pm)

Image: Judith Jones, Rendezvous.

Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition 26 May - 10 September Welcome to the Aesthetica Art Prize 2017. Inside this Guide there is information about the 16 shortlisted artists and the work on display, including painting and drawing, photography and digital, threedimensional design and sculpture, and installation and video art.

From individual narratives to global concerns, the artworks comment on contemporary culture and explore themes such as alienation in the digital age, the intersection between private and public spaces, sensory experiences and the transient nature of life in the 21st century. As the boundaries between the public and the private begin to merge into blurred depictions of reality, contemporary art is the mechanism that enables us to respond to this renewed understanding of living.

It an honour and incredible opportunity to view so many captivating works that comment on the times in which we live. I am thrilled that, through the Aesthetica Art Prize, we can focus our efforts on talent development and contribute to a global dialogue about contemporary art. Over 3,500 works were submitted and the judging process was demanding – decisions were based on skill, originality and technical ability.

The Aesthetica Art Prize is ambitious; we aspire for it to be within the ecosystem of visual arts in the 21st century, providing a range of practitioners the opportunity to develop their careers and achieve further commissions and exhibitions. Since its inception, 10 years ago, the Prize has championed a wealth of established and emerging artists who have furthered their involvement within the art world since their exposure through the award.

There are several talks and events throughout the duration of the exhibition. The lunchtime talks are free to attend and it’s a great opportunity to speak with curators and artists about the work on display. I hope that you’ll return to the show time and time again to fully experience the breadth of the work on display.

Adam Basanta, Curtain (white), 2016 www.adambasanta.com Adam Basanta arranges readymade commercial technologies and communication devices in ways that disrupt their economic functions. In Curtain (white), the artist considers the ubiquitous white earbud headphone, an everyday device that creates an interior environment in which one can retreat from the external world.

Within this personalised bubble, the headphones function as a visual “do not disturb” sign. The work plays on this by producing a three-metre-long “curtain” which sections the space, both visually and sonically. Patterns of white noise sweep across the installation, which, despite being synthetically produced, resemble waves, wind, rain and insects. Curtain (white) was made possible through support from the Canada Council for the Arts and The Agosto Foundation.

Adam Niklewicz, Rigorous, 2016 www.adamniklewicz.com Adam Niklewicz’s work has been described as both poetic and surreal. The artist sees the act of “making art” as carving out a niche for oneself – a free zone for expression that doubles as a buffer, a source of protection from the pressures of corporate society in which many people feel trapped. Since today’s climate encourages the public to believe that reality can be sanitised and made predictable, his practice pokes holes into that illusion. Rigorous encases found objects – boxing gloves – within glass jars, which offers a multitude of interpretations. The vestibules transform the function of the gloves in a new, static setting. This might encompass wider, more globalised themes such as restriction and displacement, as well as satirical subversions of recognisable objects.

Alinka Echeverría, Becoming South Sudan – Chapter One, 2011 www.alinkaecheverria.com On 9 July 2011, The Republic of South Sudan gained independence, becoming the world’s newest nation. In the weeks leading up to this, Alinka Echeverría photographed the transformation from rebel movement to self-determination. She found herself asking: how do we become a cohesive society? How can a nation be built in six months after 40 years of civil unrest? How can 69 ethnic tribes be reconciled under one flag? How does the ordinary woman, man or child contribute to this monumental societal shift? In the creative process Echeverría proactively countered the portrayal of a continent that has historically been depicted as a site of “otherness” by collaborating with her subjects and challenging the viewer to see the individual behind the story through their returned gazes.

breadedEscalope, Shadowplay, 2015 www.breadedescalope.com Shadowplay is the result of breadedEscalope’s experimentation with a certain type of void. Interacting with the state of darkness or “nothingness” helped the artists to discover that the qualities of shadow are an actual material that can be manipulated into an emotionally affecting clock. The object could be just an ambient light displayed on the wall, unless one reaches out in a gesture of engagement. But now, the viewer becomes an essential component; when they touch the wall in the ring’s centre, the clock dims all the lights. Two spots appear, illuminating the index finger and casting two shadows that resemble the hands of a clock. It is through this movement that the audience tells the time; by extension, they can reconstruct a linear dimension to be both malleable and individual.

Dylan Martinez, Untitled, 2016 www.dylanmartinezglass.com Dylan Martinez believes that our vision has the greatest effect on understanding the world around us – what we see is crucial to how we comprehend. He produces scenarios in which the viewer must question their capacity to discriminate between reality and illusion.

Martinez’s curiosity regarding comprehension is driven by the fact that he is red-green colour-blind. Having a deficit in his sensation of colour is an alternative way of seeing. Inspired by trompe l’oeil, Untitled is realised entirely from sculpted glass, depicted as bags of water. The trapped movement of the bubbles convinces the eye that sculptures are just as they seem. What is fascinating is that our desires often override our conception of reality. Martinez strives to discover novel approaches that exploit material to forge a new lens.

Emmanuelle Moureaux, I am here, 2016 and 100 colors in 3.3m2, 2017 www.emmanuellemoureaux.com Emmanuelle Moureaux’s study of colour began in 1995 – during a visit to Tokyo. She was deeply intrigued by the city’s infinite layers and living colours. In response to the unforgettable experience, she came up with a design concept, “shikiri”, which means “to divide space using colours.” Moureaux uses the different hues as threedimensional elements in order to fabricate spaces – not just as a finishing touch applied onto surfaces. To express the essence of “shikiri”, she began the 100 colors series in 2013 – constructions of varying sizes made using 100 different shades. In I am here, 18,000 cut-outs give a sense of anonymity, whilst in 100 colors in 3.3m2, fabric strips are compressed into a space of 3.3 m2 (one tsubo).

Jasmina Cibic, Tear Down and Rebuild, 2015 www.jasminacibic.org Jasmina Cibic employs a range of media and theatrical tactics to redefine a specific ideologic construct, such as art or architecture.

She draws a parallel between national culture and its value for political aims, encouraging the viewer to consider the timelessness of psychological and soft power mechanisms used by authoritarian structures. Tear Down and Rebuild was shot in the former Palace of the Federation, Belgrade, which hosted the inaugural conference of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961. Used as an iconic theatre for the representation of a new state, the building stands today as an empty theatre box, devoid of its actors – the failed states. The script presents a nation builder, a pragmatist, a conservationist and an artist-architect who become a reflection of figurative deliberation.

Judith Jones, Rendezvous, 2015 and The Road to Nowhere, 2016 www.judithjonesphoto.com Judith Jones’s work often relates to personal conflicts and human frailties. Images from the Twilight series examine the dialect between the outside and inside, commenting on the contrasts of private and public spaces. Each composition considers exclusion and isolation, fear and uncertainty. Seemingly mundane spaces can hold a myriad of memories; some of these one might approach with familiarity and nostalgia. The “blue hour” of twilight takes us through the transition between day and night, maintaining an uncanny sense of unease. The border between the two states is intangible, but subtle nuances permeate the frames of our homes.

Documenting this fragile time frame presents a filmic space that intrigues and fascinates, yet also evokes a lingering sense of fear.

Julio Bittencourt, Tokyo Subway and Capsule Hotel, 2015 / 2016 www.juliobittencourt.com Julio Bittencourt grew up between São Paulo and New York. The two cities that formed the artist’s cultural experiences are undeniably the forces behind his work. He is driven by disparate roots, taking the concept of unity to fruition by means of different colour palettes. Bittencourt constructs social pieces through the use of photography. For the past 12 years, he has dedicated himself to the interpretation of relationships between people and the environment.

Bittencourt has achieved this through a series of sub-stories and projects that explore how we are living, occupying and ultimately sharing our world. Plethora is an example of this, reflecting on global overpopulation through seven different countries where the phenomenon is particularly relevant. These images are from Tokyo.

Lesley Hilling, A Patch of Blue and El Barrio, 2016 www.lesleyhilling.co.uk Lesley Hilling is inspired by the architectural layering of buildings and cities. Both A Patch of Blue and El Barrio (“neighbourhood”) are collages made of salvaged wood. Floorboards, driftwood and furniture have all been reworked into new forms – jig-sawed and layered obsessively. The composition is sculptural, almost like a three-dimensional painting. She selects each piece of wood for its colour, texture and tonal quality to make the larger material structure. Both works refer to the metropolis and its historic and cultural strata; it is deeply interactive – layers are created and cemented over time. The worn wood and faded paint evoke other histories and past lives. Eroded lacquer and greying timber has been repurposed within a larger network of connections.

Maryam Tafakory, Absent Wound, 2017 www.maryamtafakory.com Part-moving image, part-performance, Maryam Tafakory’s work draws on self-censorship, womanhood and rites of passage, interweaving poetry and rituals whilst combining a minimalist syntax and figurative mode of representation. In Absent Wound, a “Zoorkhaneh” (“house of strength”) presents the contrasts between two opposites. The physical strength and expectations of wrestling are brought into proximity with a female protagonist who faces emergent womanhood at the advent of her menstrual cycle. The contradictory interrelationship between the social and textual disturbs stereotypes and gender-specific roles. Tafakory’s videos draw on the notion of “personal as political” in a fractured narrative that negotiates fact and fiction and the inherent partiality of reality.

Sara Morawetz, How the Stars Stand, 2016 www.saramorawetz.com Our experience of time is not constant – it flexes to the specific nature of our passage through space. Bound to the parameters of Earth, this concept seems imperceptible. How the Stars Stand is a study of the standardisation of time across planetary systems.

In this work, “performative-time” is re-calibrated to reflect local mean solar time on Mars – a 2.7% lengthening of each “performative-day.” To ascertain the consequences of this dynamic, a palindromic cycle is enacted, allowing one’s experience of “time” to drift completely out of sync, to invert and to slowly return to synchronicity – an action taking 37 days / 36 Martian “sols” to complete. The piece was staged at Open Source Gallery, New York, where Morawetz lived / worked / slept for the 36 “sol” period.

Stanza, The Nemesis Machine, 2016 www.stanza.co.uk Recurring themes throughout Stanza’s career have included the urban landscape, surveillance culture and the impossible notion of privacy in the city. He is intrigued by the patterns we leave behind, as well as real-time networked events that can be re-imagined and sourced for information. He uses technology to create distances between multi-point perspectives that emphasise a new visual space.

The purpose of this is to communicate feelings and emotions which impact our lives beyond our control. The Nemesis Machine  monitors fluctuating information from around the world, by means of custom-made sensors, cameras and computers. The results are aesthetically beautiful data maps, all translated into large-scale installations that represent weather, pollution and traffic reports.

Stephen Johnston, Limes in Jar, 2016 www.stephen-johnston.co.uk Stephen Johnson’s recent ventures reinterpret still life: food slowly decaying in glass jars, burnt bottles, deconstructed cakes in jars, a bowl full of roadkill. These vivid images deal with the subject of mortality and reveal how the artist sees still life as a comment on death. The Old Masters also used their compositions to make social comment, often setting up luxurious and detailed scenes garnished with riches and extravagant foods. These materialistic icons were undermined by a sense of fleeting momentariness. Johnston is interested in presenting subject matter in an unfamiliar manner by deconstructing objects from their recognisable connotations and taking steps to reconstruct the semantics of the materials in such a way as to build new relationships with the meanings they once held.

Toby Dye, The Corridor, 2016 www.tobydye.com The Corridor is a love letter to the work of Stanley Kubrick. The idea came from the camera zooms of Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon. Toby Dye wanted to create a film installation which envelopes the audience, immersed within a camera zoom that never ends, an infuriatingly ambitious concept. The installation is viewed in virtual reality that depicts a room in which all four walls are filled with the same never-ending tracking shot, travelling down the same identical corridor. Each of the four clips sees a different person journeying along their own never-ending narrative. The stories bleed into one another, with characters criss-crossing into each other’s corridors as the narratives weave together to form a disorientating, hypnotic, Kubrickian tale of control, violence and the doomed cycle of power.

Webb-Ellis, Parlor Walls, 2016 www.webb-ellis.org Webb-Ellis are British / Canadian artists working in film, installation and performance. They are storytellers, weaving together images, sounds and chance encounters of personal experiences into multidisciplinary environments that address the universal – what it is to be human in these strange times and the shifting boundaries between the self and the other. Parlor Walls takes Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 a s a starting point through which to comment on the collective feeling of alienation in the digital age. Made up of documentary, performance and online videos, it oscillates between the mythological and the everyday – an enquiry into loneliness, desire, memory and touch, all of which are becoming more prevalent in the 21st century Anthropocene period.

Exhibition Talks 12:30 - 13:00, various days throughout the exhibition Further your appreciation of contemporary art and enhance your experience of the Aesthetica Art Prize by joining us at the following talks. Led by artists, curators and academics they offer an insight into current themes in the art world. Talks start at 12:30.

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Friday 26 May: Future Now: Meet the Aesthetica Art Prize Shortlist The 2017 finalists offer insight into their practices, which address a range of contemporary themes and personalised narratives.

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Thursday 8 June: Navigating the Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition Griselda Goldsbrough leads an engaging tour of the exhibition, identifying the various themes and techniques on display.

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Thursday 15 June: Engaging with the Arts: Creativity and Wellbeing Griselda Goldsbrough draws upon the pieces in this year’s Prize to explore how we can benefit from connecting with artworks.

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Thursday 29 June: Sculpture Today: Creation and Interpretation Dr Joanna Sperryn-Jones discusses the state of contemporary sculpture and the processes behind three-dimensional works.

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Thursday 13 July: Art After the Internet Dr Cadence Kinsey investigates the relationship between art and technology, identifying the opportunities of the digital age.

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Thursday 27 July: Exhibition Practices: Curating for the 21st Century Audience Jennifer Alexander, Curator of Art at York Art Gallery, sheds light on the notion of exhibition practices within the 21st century.

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Thursday 10 August: Shortlisted Artists: Webb-Ellis Discuss Video Installation Andrew and Caitlin Webb-Ellis discuss what it is to be human and the shifting boundaries between the self and the other.

www.aestheticamagazine.com/artprize/talks

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Issue 63 February / March 2015

THE ART & CULTURE MAGAZINE

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ENGAGING ABSTRACTION

INTERPRETING GEOMETRY

MULTIDISCIPLINARY ART

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A retrospective of Barbara Kasten depicts photography’s materiality

Viviane Sassen creates photographs that play with space, colour and form

Douglas Coupland’s major survey highlights his prolific artistic output

An insight into the distinctive creative process of designer Dries Van Noten

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THE ART & CULTURE MAGAZINE

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Issue 75 February / March 2017

INTEGRAL TOPOGRAPHIES

UNIVERSAL REFLECTIONS

CULTURAL ILLUMINATION

DYNAMIC IMAGINATION

Highlighting the shifting relationship between landscape and construction

Design expositions reveal common interests in contemporary practices

Investigating the evolutionary value of art through adaptive installations

Pioneers of Scandinavian fashion consider tradition and innovation

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