'Diorama' is a multi-chan-nel video installation which Candice made during her recent residency at the ArtPace Foundation in San Antonio, Texas. The source material for the resulting 9 monitor installation is the American soap opera Dallas.
Diorama
'My barbecue, my house, my barbecue, my house...' (Jock Ewing)
'I always cry at weddings, I always cry at weddings, I always cry at
weddings...' (Miss Ellie)
'But what about love, but what about love...' (Pam)
'I want a clean and fast divorce, I want a clean and fast divorce...' (Sue
Ellen)
'You're not my real mommy & daddy, you're not my real mommy & daddy...'
(Christopher)
aspreyjacques is pleased to present Diorama, Candice Breitz's first solo
show in London. Produced while Candice Breitz was in residency at ArtPace
(San Antonio, USA), Diorama is the latest in a series of multichannel video
installations for which the artist has gained international recognition.
For London, Breitz will transform the gallery into a domestic space complete
with avocado green walls, fitted carpet and furnishings. Nine monitors will
be scattered around the room, each screen showing a different character from
the 1980s American soap opera Dallas. Played simultaneously, the nine
monitors recite an exhausting catalogue of daily dilemmas typical of family
life in the late twentieth century: birth, death, marriage, divorce, suicide
and betrayal.
Through her editing, Breitz creates a series of jarring moments submerging
us in a litany of intimate dramas. Figures like J.R. Ewing and Cliff Barnes
are reincarnated in thought-provoking and surprisingly moving guises. Bobby,
Pam, Lucy, Sue Ellen and little Christopher all rear their heads once more
for an audience, many of whom will have been avid viewers of the soap opera
which ran for fourteen years. These ghosts from our recent consumer-past
return to us like ex-lovers, goading us and provoking simultaneous feelings
of fascination and disgust.
Born in Johannesburg (1972), Candice Breitz lives and works in Berlin.
Solo shows include the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2000); De
Appel Foundation, Amsterdam (2001) and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
(2002). Breitz was also recently included in 'Remix' at the Tate Liverpool.
Forthcoming museum solo shows include Castello di Rivoli, Turin and
Modern Art, Oxford (13 September - 9 November 2003).
Private view: Wednesday 26 February, 6 - 8
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10 - 6
Next Exhibitions: Jeff Ono / Ian Kiaer, 11 April - 24 May
John Chilver, 30 May - 1 August
Art Fairs: The Armory Show, New York, 7 - 10 March, Pier 88, Booth
8008
For further information and images
please contact Alison Abrams on 0207 287 7675
aspreyjacques
4 Clifford Street
London
t: 020 7287 7675
f: 020 7287 7674