Identity
12 March - 4 April 2009
Open to the public
Monday to Friday 9.30am - 6.00pm
Saturday 11.00am - 6.00pm
http://itn.co.uk/news/31ae660efd47c1ce29faceca2e80a8b1.html
Andipa Contemporary is delighted to
present an exhibition of works by artists Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, Tom
Price and David Birkin. Their
distinctive portraits explore form and identity on multiple levels: cultural, political, racial, external and
internal. At a
time when values are changing and we are reassessing the way we live our
lives,
each
artist forces us to question the
judgements we make about identity.
Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada most recently hit the headlines with
Expectation, a
depiction of Barack Obama covering 2.5 acres of Barcelona's
coastline which
can
be seen
from GoogleEarth. In this show, his
large-scale charcoal drawings depict ordinary people who have been thrust into the
limelight overnight due to
heroic or
unexpected circumstances. One such hero is
Captain Chelsey B.
Sullenberger
III, who
safely landed his US Airways Airbus in
New
York's Hudson River, saving all 155 passengers and
crew.
By contrast in scale, Tom Price's
delicately sculpted heads are
small enough
to
fit into the palm of
a
hand. The
intensity and
intimacy of the exquisitely detailed work by
Price
is palpable. While the
sculptures' white
colour links them to classical marble statues, their features
are clearly Afro-Caribbean,
altering our
preconceptions of
traditional
sculpture.
Every
evening, Price's animated video work Man 9 will
be
back-projected onto the
facade of the gallery, the face of the anonymous character catching passers-by with
only the
subtlest movements -
a
blink or a
slight stir
bringing him to
life.
In David Birkin's Confessions
series, each
sitter
reveals a secret to the open shutter of an antique still camera. The length of the exposure is
determined
by
the length of the
confession. What
is said
remains a secret to
the sitter
alone. The camera
captures the essence of
the
moment
of
catharsis, a process of purging or relief. Also included in the exhibition is
Birkin's series
Form, light boxes
depicting
a range of 'stress
positions', similar
to those
employed by
interrogators on prisoners at
the
detention facilities of
Abu
Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. As with the Confessions series, the
length that the
position could be held determined
the
length of
exposure.
For
further
press
information, images
and to
arrange interviews, please contact
Jen Murby by email at jen@andipa.com or by
telephone on 44
(0)20 7589 2371.
