Exhibition Guide
Daria Martin Sensorium Tests
20 January – 8 April 2012
Exhibition supported by: The Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation, Maureen Paley and the Exhibition Circle of Friends including Sarah and Louis Elson, Nicoletta Fiorucci. Alison and Paul Myners, Valeria and Gregorio Napoleone, Maria Sukkar, Bina von Stauffenberg and those who wish to remain anonymous. Sensorium Tests supported by: Wellcome Trust and Arts Council England
MK Gallery 900 Midsummer Blvd Milton Keynes MK9 3QA
info@mkgallery.org www.mkgallery.org T 01908 676 900
Tuesday – Friday 12pm – 8pm Saturday 11am – 8pm Sunday 11am – 5pm
About the Exhibition Daria Martin’s first survey exhibition in a UK public gallery presents a selection of short 16 mm films made over the last ten years, including the premier of an ambitious new work, Sensorium Tests. These films combine elements of painting, sculpture, performance, dance and music, revealing the artist’s sustained enquiry into numerous pressing cultural issues, including enchantment, voyeurism and artificial intelligence. Martin’s work often raises questions about what it means to be ‘touched’ by cinema and alternates playfully between luring the viewer through rich sensuous images and pushing them back into an awareness of artifice. This intentionally crafted ‘push and pull’ draws attention to the essential contradictions of the medium of film. Encountering art always produces varying degrees of engagement and interaction, whether triggering personal memories, associations or feelings, or more recently in literal, physical responses to immersive, participatory installations. In some ways, Martin’s work turns these distinctions on their head, making virtual activities indistinguishable from real physical actions. Martin’s films frequently include musicians, choreographers, actors, and members of subcultures not normally placed before the camera. The cast of Sensorium Tests comprises the Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca as well as several non-actors, including the synaesthete James Wannterton, who ‘tastes words’. Installed within a dynamic environment designed by Post Works (Melissa Appleton and Matthew Butcher), the exhibition moves along a spectrum of experience that lies between the imaginative and the physical. Daria Martin Daria Martin (born 1973, San Francisco) studied Humanities at Yale and received her M.F.A. from UCLA in 2000. Based in London since 2002, Martin’s solo exhibitions include the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2006), Kunstverein in Hamburg, Kunsthalle Zürich (both 2005), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2009) which toured to the New Museum, New York and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Her work is currently on view at the Pompidou Centre, Paris in Danser Sa Vie (until April) and a solo show opened at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan in December 2011. Post Works Post Works is a collaboration between Melissa Appleton and Matthew Butcher. Recent exhibitions include Just the Flip Side of the Wall, a solo exhibition at the Architecture Foundation, London and No Stop Statue Machine, a video work screened at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. Over the past two years they have collaborated with other artists, choreographers and filmmakers including Pablo Bronstein, Edwin Burdis and Rosemary Butcher on environments for Sadler’s Wells and the Hayward Gallery. Publication: Sensorium Tests The publication accompanying the exhibition, designed by APFEL, includes texts by Melissa Gronlund, writer and managing Editor of Afterall and Daria Martin, alongside a mini-anthology of texts selected by Martin including writers Walter Benjamin, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Laura Mulvey and Mary Shelley. Price: £19 Available to buy at the Information Desk or online - www.mkgallery.org/shop
Middle Gallery Soft Materials Cube Gallery Sensorium Tests
Long Gallery Closeup Gallery Long Gallery Harpstrings and Lava
* Adjust side switch on headphone to change soundtrack for each film in the Long Gallery.
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Entrance Toilets Shop & Resource Area
Cube Gallery Sensorium Tests 2012 16 mm film Duration 10 min. Courtesy the artist and Maureen Paley, London
Middle Gallery Soft Materials 2004 16 mm film Duration 10 min. 30 sec. Courtesy the artist and Maureen Paley, London
The new film Sensorium Tests (2012), revolves around a recently recognised neurological condition called ‘mirror-touch synaesthesia’. People with this condition experience a physical sense of touch on their own bodies when they see other people, or sometimes even objects, being touched. Based on a real life experiment into this condition, the film explores how sensations might be created and shared between people and objects.
Soft Materials (2004), was shot in an Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Zurich where scientists produce robots which learn to function through the experience of their physical ‘bodies’, rather than being programmed by a computer ‘brain’. In the film, two performers, trained in body awareness and acutely sensitive to the nuances of movement, approach the robots as if they were sentient beings.
Long Gallery Closeup Gallery 2003 16 mm film Duration 10 min. Courtesy the artist and Maureen Paley, London
Long Gallery Harpstrings and Lava 2007 16 mm film Duration 13 min. Courtesy the artist and Maureen Paley, London
In Closeup Gallery (2003), a magician and his assistant appear to communicate in secret code while playing a strange game where coloured playing cards are shuffled, spread, stacked, thrown and mysteriously substituted. As the man and woman tentatively exchange glances, repeatedly relinquishing and regaining control, the spray painted cards dance free from their manipulations.
Harpstrings and Lava (2007), is a dark narrative that animates dream images through clashing textures and structures. The characters are torn between extreme states, embodied by stylised performances and constructed stage sets. The film seeks to channel the anxiety inherent in certain nightmares, specifically in a ghoulish dream in which harp strings and lava inhabit the same space.
Click here to watch a selection of excerpts from these films
Events Programme See website for full event listings www.mkgallery.org/events
Talks & Tours In Conversation Daria Martin discusses her work with Catherine Wood, Curator, Contemporary Art / Performance, Tate Modern. Thursday 23 February, 6.30pm, free Pre-book online or at the Information Desk Exhibition Tours Free. No need to pre-book, just drop in. Saturday 21 January, 2pm Saturday 10 March, 2pm Audio Described Tour Free. For visitors with additional access needs. Monday 12 March, 2pm Scratch Nights Happening every Thursday evening at the Gallery, Scratch Nights are a series of free events by emerging local and national practitioners working in music, sound, film, expanded cinema, performance and spoken word. See website for weekly listings Friday Night Films Selected by Daria Martin Screenings start at 6.30pm Friday 20 January Rear Window (1954) Dir. Alfred Hitchcock (Cert. PG, 112 mins)
Friday 27 January A Man Escaped (1956) Dir. Robert Bresson (Cert. U, 99 mins) Friday 3 February Blood of a Poet (1930) Dir. Jean Cocteau (Cert. UA, 55 mins) Friday 10 February Avatar (2010) Dir. James Cameron (Cert. 12a, 162 mins) Friday 17 February Fantasia (1940) Dir. James Algar and Samuel Armstrong (Cert. U, 124 mins) Friday 24 February Spirit of the Beehive (1973) Dir. Victor Erice (Cert. 15, 97 mins) Introductory talk by Dr. Emma Fry, MK Gallery’s Head of Learning Friday 2 March The Piano (1993) Dir. Jane Campion (Cert. 15, 121 mins) Friday 9 March Battleship Potemkin (1925) Dir. Sergei Eisenstein (Cert. PG, 75 mins) Plus live score Friday 16 March The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (1972) Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbender (Cert. 16, 124 mins) Friday 23 March All That Heaven Allows (1955) Dir. Douglas Sirk (Cert. U, 89 mins)
Friday 30 March Three Penny Opera (1931) Dir. Bertolt Brecht (Cert. E, 124 mins) Friday 6 April Teorema (1968) Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini (Cert. 15, 105 mins) Tickets £5 (concessions £3) Pre-book at the Information Desk or on 01908 676 900 Organised in collaboration with Indepdendent Cinema MK Family Events Free, just drop-in. Start The Art Parent & Toddler sessions Every Tuesday, 11am – 12noon 24, 31 January; 7, 14, 21, 28 February; 6, 13, 20, 27 March; 3 April Mini Makers Artist-led workshops suitable for accompanied children ages 4+ Every Saturday, 1pm – 3pm 21, 28 January; 4, 11, 18, 25 February; 3,10, 17, 24, 31 March; 7 April See website for full listings February Half Term Family Workshops Artist-led activities inspired by our current exhibition on the theme of sound and visual art. All ages welcome. Thursday 16 February, 10am – 12 noon Friday 17 February, 10am – 12 noon