ENTRANCES Nedregard & Hillary

NEDREGÅRD & HILLARY 2009-2011

entrances

NABROAD.LONDON.2011 www.nabroad.org

en produced, published, and designed by NABROAD 2011 © all rights reserved Agnes Nedregård and Moray Hillary and NABROAD Queries: info@nabroad.org

contents

ntrances .text: Ian Balch. .interview: Julie Lillelien Porter. .works: Nedreg책rd & Hillary.

Collaboration…...grief has limits where apprehension has none Interacting so not to coincide they both did all sorts of things and she chose the moment to light a cigarette an instant of fire too fragile to be put away as their mood shifted although the emotion that preceded it was present and he was moved although he didn’t feel the same We’ll see she echoed you know how it is There is method and logic however each time this happened even if she changes the order although he can remember the way she did it not the way it happened And when his mind filled with things like this words broke their guise of how they taste in the mouth He had a task to perform now and after he would understand if he turned his head as this wasn’t fiction but a value to the lining of their game His English was perfect too perfect and yet they didn’t speak the same language as their thoughts followed different channels in a passage through the brain although both didn’t wish to appear to be intervening Their eyes were fixed on nothing but that’s another story that he wasn’t going to tell as she still had a strong accent Her presence sufficed for as long as he could recall not that he will hoard such thoughts to use later in another place as he doesn’t want to waste time looking for them again when he could be doing something else He walked slowly so to compose himself then on his knees he touched the floor and bunching her coat about her she also crouched feeling to touch the mark there As their resolve was no whim this could happen only once but there’d be other times Private World…...imagination has its limits when applied like this In the middle of a sentence that he doesn’t remember she pointed to the floor and he took a brush and created order in the dust without seeing it as such although its shadow doesn’t lie playing out the fabric of things This doesn’t mean a sameness of intention though as there’s no reference to a vanished picture

TEXT

.Ia.Ian Balch. ’ ...any correlation is arbitrary’.

Then a kind of battle began on her face it was the feature she’d seen in a mirror but had never come to the surface She pushed it back by muscular effort and although the mirror stayed her face doesn’t reference its psychotic cut-off There was nothing behind but they did have the back of the mirror to find face again and as part of the process to evaluate the situation now that the clouds above Ithaca are not seen

by Odysseus anymore He thought her face would decomposed here before the mirror but she hadn’t thought to look as he was now turning forward What they believed and all that happened became true and factual exactly as it happened But the fat of the soul is difficult to restore as it should be but if they knew that at the beginning would they be worried now Her voice became audible as he considered this so he thought out loud and told her his memory was going blind and with both hands he pointed to his lips to shape the sound that she couldn’t read in the mirror where he looked its called aesthetic distance she said Entrances……‘Was’ is not ‘is’ – As you like it, III, 4 Something grey is visible and falls down there had to be contact when he picked it up then he folded it in his handkerchief from the seam downwards and then bowed his head If he hadn’t been in that position how would she understand By isolating it he tells himself was part of their nature to take it to study is what they will do as a matter of routine now as working backwards would hide it from them Take it away he said and she folded it neatly for the first time Not that she had to pursue what it was as she claimed to be looking for the situation elsewhere But that wasn’t necessarily true as he already sensed this suggested that he’d need to believe his presentiments And that was ridiculous as it wasn’t a question of presentiment but it wasn’t a question of fact either Every mark they’d make now taken with consideration had something of order but it wasn’t quite

that simple either as any transcription made out of curiosity killed the time of something unspoken and they couldn’t keep it that way She walked on but paused now and then to look round to see if he’d allowed for the error of the situation What remained to be done became a wave that flowed over the surface interspersed by foot steps The surface became uneven and away from this light whatever was accomplished would make what was to become harder to do So they moved forward in a straight line to keep the sequence as before but a genus of disorder governed this place as they walked across it and it won’t repair their sense of direction as they went backwards for there is a tone that went with the narratives of past time This is a story they tell themselves all the time just a private act solemn yet contagious

Ian Balch is an Artist and Doctor of Philosophy (in practice-based Fine Art).

I have had amnesia for 30 years, which has had the effect of reducing my capacity to retain the aftereffects of experience. As an artist I have been able to make sense of the world I live in through making process-based work, which uses metonymic structures to explore memory and memory loss.

JLP: Your upcoming exhibition is titled Entrances. How does this relate to your process–based collaborative work?

N&H: The title is open on so many levels– a metaphor for many different things. It began with an observation by one of the viewers of our last show Private World at the Collins Gallery in Glasgow. He saw that many of Moray’s painting pieces were of pretend openings or entrances. Therefore, it was in that show we really felt for the first time that our collaboration became something else than just responding to each other, even though we have worked together for six years.

Now it feels more about leading and being lead, an entrance into...

JLP: ..into your private world?

N&H: Yes. A question about where we can go with all these ideas, and how it is becoming increasingly playful.

JLP: Is that because you have started to become familiar with each other’s processes?

N&H: Yes. There seems to be more freedom, and fewer constraints. We´ve stopped getting annoyed about our different paces, and finding a way of coming together about that. In the beginning we felt that each other should follow each other’s pace. Moray’s way was too set, and Agnes´ was too open. When we stopped thinking about this as a problem, and more of an opportunity, we could plan and think about things properly. However, it is still process-based. It often ends up not quite, as we had planned. The work takes on it is own life, in many ways. In addition, it becomes clearer what we are actually doing. The work that we are going to show, stems from the residency that we did with ACME in London last January and February, and the focal point of the exhibition will be this rickety-rackety raft.

JLP: The struggle and the desire to meet each other, to find these entrances, relates to the raft you will be building, which is a vehicle for transport and moving.

Could you talk a little about these meeting points?

N&H: We have always had a theoretical meeting point, in the producing of work. We have both always had a shared interest in the physical body, which is the essence of the work. Again expanding from that, the existential dimension, what it means to be a hu-

INTERVIEW

.Ia.Julie Lillelien Porter. ’Fragility of the Body’. .(an interview with Agnes Nedregård and Moray Hillary about their upcoming show in ACME Studios, London May 2011).

man being, what it means to be alive. We both wish to explore and describe elements of that “journey”, although we usually express it through completely different mediums. When we met, Moray was painting these skin surfaces, whilst Agnes was trying to identify how it feels like to be in the body. Now, we are trying to find a meeting point for that. Our approach has become more similar, and we are both working more sculptural. Both our personal material repertoires are becoming broader and there are more elements of freedom and playfulness. However, the work is still embodying the same issues. For Agnes, the performative work has also become more sculptural. Earlier, she was “clinging onto” objects, whilst now the objects are clinging on to her, so to speak. Therefore, connected to this again, we have been talking a lot about a broader idea of existentialism recently, although the topic has always been present, for both of us.

JLP: Do you mean in terms of how you read and understand existentialist theory and philosophy?

N&H: Yes, and what it means to be alive. We talk about the magic of that quite a lot. The “entrances” we talk about are also about the magic for us, the perception of reality, the physical reality versus the objective view of reality. We have always had a shared interest and curiosity in the metaphysical, the potential for another layer of reality. This opens up for the kinds of metaphors that we frequently use, like entrances and caves, those kinds of metaphors.

An example of this kind of magic was when Moray took a class in alchemy, whilst studying for his MFA in Chicago. Whilst teaching the professor used a large projection of a map, to Moray a familiar coastline. Although the professor was not quite sure exactly which coastline it was, it turned out to the coastline of a place in Scotland, where Moray grew up!

JLP: Let’s talk about the significance of the materials you use in your collaborative practice, – you both work very expressively with different materials, and you share similarly a deep interest in the material.

N&H: Yes, both of our individual work is very expressive, material–wise. We have ongoing dialogues about it and we try out many different things. During our latest show Private World, Agnes tried to make a physical cone, which did not work. We were allowed access to the back of the gallery to use whatever materials were there, and there we found this Perspex cylinder, exactly the shape of what we were thinking

about. Agnes had brought along some bark from a tree in Norway, which we filled the cylinder with. This is an example of how the work grows organically, the ongoing reference to an exchange of ideas.

JLP: How are geographical places, the site you are in, important for you, when you are working?

N&H: For Agnes, the geographical place, as you suggest, has always been important. The atmosphere of the place becomes part of the work, and her response is connected directly to the physicality and the cultural characteristics of a place. Moray’s processes are longer and more work demanding, whereas Agnes has an immediate response to a situation or place.

JLP: So you are hoping to investigate the physical and cultural backdrop of where you are together.

N&H: Yes, we have a desire to become more connected and more aware of both where we are and each other. During the preparation for the show, we have been concentrating on how we can experience things we normally would take for granted, differently. The raft is going to be made from what we find in the streets and canals, and the only thing we are bringing along with us for building it is some rope to tie it together. The rest of the material we have to find on site. Just this forces us to look at our surroundings differently, forcing us go to places that we might not normally go. We do not know either exactly what we are going to find, the logistics of it and how to appropriate the site where we are. This process can be quite playful, but although it is playful, does not mean it becomes less serious. We are interested in how we perceive reality against our personal and cultural backgrounds, how we often, as adults, form filters and organise reality. To exercise identifying how we construct borderlines, which can be subtle, but at the same time significant. There are always possibilities of reading the surroundings and other people in ways that are more open.

JLP: This makes me think of an earlier piece Moray has made, which you call The Cave. It’s a painted piece situated in a corner. I associate it with a psychological landscape, although it is very sculptural.

N&H: Yes, The Cave with be brought along with us to London. It is easy to move around, as it is painted onto linoleum. The painterly language is used, it is not only a naturalistic illustration of a cave, or an

entrance, and it is about personal perception. If you look at it, it is full of language. The materiality of paint is a bit like blobs of ink, where images are created out of pools. The form suggested itself by exaggerating the contrast between light and dark.

Therefore, that is how The Cave piece started.

JLP: So– your pieces embody painterly, sculptural and live qualities, and the found materials that you use have all these physical dimensions to them.

N&H: Yes. For us it is very much about the tactility of the material. We would like to transform the show throughout the time it will be open. Our collaboration is about how we can join and emerge the main parts of our practices, – in a gallery context? How can we build layers of a working process, how can we use the aftermaths from a performance. Can the show be a journey in itself? We think it will be a nice surprise of elements, working with the materials in a live way together.

JLP: So you want the show to evolve?

N&H: That is right. We will be working two weeks before the opening, and it will be possible to see the exhibition changing and evolving over the course of it being open. A continuum of elements stemming from the past, which we take into the future.

Julie Lillelien Porter (1975) studied Sculpture and Environmental Art at Glasgow School of Art, 2003, and later graduated with an MFA from Bergen National Academy of the Arts in Bergen, 2010. Her work often contains elements of investigation and survey work, where she wants to reverse, disclose or make visible hidden, imaginary or “secret” factors. She is founder and one quarter of the Norwegian artist group Ytter, for whom she also writes. Julie lives and works in Bergen, Norway. www.julielillelienporter.net www.ytter.no

2010

.Private world.

2010

.Blind Spot.

2009

.Licking wounds.

2008

.Quarantine.

2011

.Entrances.

BIO Moray Hillary (Scotland) trained in painting and received an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1992. His work has developed from large-scale paintings of skin surfaces with naturalistic depictions of wounds and tattoos, into exceedingly three-dimensional objects and spatial interactions, while staying true to painting as his primary medium.

Agnes Nedregard (Norway) received her MFA degree from Glasgow School of Art in 2005, and has developed a practice based on bodily perceptions and expressions, mostly finding its form as live performances. She embellishes her actions and images with self-made objects and costumes.

Hillary and Nedregard have worked together since 2005, looking for interesting ways to join their respective ideas and mediums into a new and independent form.

Recent projects include residencies at Acme Firestation in London and Hoerweg Studios in Dusseldorf in 2010, and in 2010, a 6-week exhibition – in – residence at Collin’s gallery, Glasgow.

CV Moray Hillary and Agnes Nedregard COMING EVENTS May 2011 ‘Entrances’, Exhibition/ performances, Acme Project Space, London SOLO EXHIBITIONS/ live performances 2010 ‘Private World’ exhibition/live performances, Collins Gallery, Glasgow 2010 ‘Backsliding Feralessly’ and ‘Total Eclipse of the Sun’, Hoherweg Studios, Düsseldorf 2009 ‘Licking Wounds’, The White House, Glasgow 2008 ‘Quarantine’, Atelier Am Eck, Düsseldorf GROUP EXHIBITIONS/ live performances 2009 ‘Error Art’, Beznadziejna gallery, Warsaw 2008 ‘Icebreaker festival’, Lilandgården, Kabelvåg, Lofoten 2006 ‘The House of a Thousand Pleasures’, Østre Skostredet, Bergen 2006 ‘Body Navigation’, Elagin State Museum, St. Petersburg 2005 ‘Generating Form’, Rutherglen Town Hall, Rutherglen, Glasgow RESIDENCIES 2010 Collins Gallery, Glasgow 2010 Hoherweg Studios, Düsseldorf 2010 Residency Acme studios, London 2008 Kulturamt der Landeshaupstadt, Dusseldorf

BIOGRAPHY

.Nedreg책rd & Hillary.

Private World Date: 6th of Nov - 18th of Dec 2010, What: Solo Exhibition Where: Collin’s Gallery, Glasgow About: We were 6 weeks in residence at the gallery, using the gallery as a studio for developing work while the exhibition was open to the public, and presenting the results at three private views throughout. We also explained our working process and provided workshops for student groups and others.

Painting and installation by Moray Hillary Materials: vinyl, acrylic paint, found objects and materials Installations, video, wearable scuptures and performances by Agnes Nedregard ‘Can’t get through’ and ‘Journey’ were two of three performances developed and shown during the time in Collin’s gallery.

Blind Spot Date: January and February 2010 What: Artist Residency Where: Fire Station, Acme, London, About: Painting and installation by Moray Hillary Materials: vinyl, acrylic paint, found objects and materials Installations, video, wearable scuptures and performative ideas by Agnes Nedregard Materials: found objects and materials, wood, elastics, plastillina etc.

Licking Wounds Date: 13 th June 2009 What: One night event following a 4 week residency Where: the Whitehouse, Glasgow About: Installations and painting by Moray Hillary Materials: various - found objects and materials, ‘cheerleader cones’, acrylic paint, vinyl.

Dimensions variable Installation, video and live performance by Agnes Nedregard Materials: found objects and materials, wood, chains, hinges, sand, syrup, costume, stilts.

Dimensions: variable, duration performance 30 min Quarantine Date: September - October 2008 What: Residency Where: Atelier am Eck, Düsseldorf About: Materials: various - found objects and materials, acrylic paint, horsehair, plexiglass globes.

Dimensions: variable ‘In Quarantine’, performance at opening by Agnes Nedregard Materials: found objects and materials, hair, elastics, costume Duration performance: 1 hour 15 min Live music by Thilo Scoelpen All images: © Nedregard & Hillary 2011 Moray Hillary: www.axisweb.org/artist/morayhillary Agnes Nedregård: www.axisweb.org/artist/agnesnedregard Enquiries: info@nabroad.org

NOTES

.Nedreg책rd & Hillary.

NABROAD Texts: Julie Lillelien Porter Ian Balch Reg Hillary Sandro Paladini Jorun Roaldseth and Tor Langeland Torgrim Wahl Sund Acme WASPS Bergen City Council Virtual Portfolio Conrad Haughton Allen Strong The Royal Norwegian Embassy London Siri Aronsen

Photography: Christoffer E Eide Henry Chan (pages 11, 17, 40, 41, 42, 43) Stephanie Spindler (Pages 46, 47)

THANK YOU

.To:.