MODERN ART OXFORD KALEIDOSCOPE IT’S ME TO THE WORLD 20 August - 17 October Welcome to KALEIDOSCOPE, a celebration of 50 years of contemporary art, performance and experimental visual culture at Modern Art Oxford. Because it’s a special year, we decided to try something a little different. Instead of closing when artwork is being installed, the galleries will be open all year round in 2016. This is so you can glimpse behind the scenes to see the exhibitions being made. In KALEIDOSCOPE you’ll see works from past exhibitions at Modern Art Oxford sharing space with an exciting roster of new commissions. Artworks returning to the gallery from across the world appear alongside works by artists showing here for the first time. The past and the present are combined in what we hope you will find engaging, reflexive shows that touch on one of our most enduring preoccupations – the nature of time. Over 700 exhibitions have been presented at Modern Art Oxford since the gallery was founded 50 years ago. KALEIDOSCOPE does not aim to be a definitive historical account by any means. It offers a snapshot of some of the many highlights in our history, captured in the exhibitions, performances, talks and events taking place throughout the year. It aims to reflect some key ideas in contemporary art over the past half a century. It’s Me to the World It’s Me to the World is the fourth display in KALEIDOSCOPE. It brings together artists from several generations who adapt forms from nature and use the body to explore ideas of perception, intimacy and endurance. Over the last 50 years, the ever-increasing presence of digital technologies for personal use has arguably changed our relationship with our immediate surroundings. The expansion of urbanisation, changes to the climate and a decrease in natural habitats mean that opportunities to be immersed in nature grow ever more precious. The artists shown here investigate how we may connect more deeply with ourselves in relation to our natural environments. This exhibition invites you to take a pause, to encounter the sights and sounds of the artwork, some of which unfold in time rather than existing solely as objects in space. The keystone for this exhibition is Richard Long’s astute statement of active self-awareness: “My footsteps make the mark. My legs carry me across the country. It’s like a way of measuring the world. I love that connection to my own body. It’s me to the world.” KALEIDOSCOPE celebrates the role art plays in shaping our perception of the world. For each of us, our visual perception is influenced as much by our unique experiences as what we see in front of us. Our interest is in your understanding of contemporary art and life. Whether you’re looking at a painting from the 1960s or watching a new performance, being here you are also part of Modern Art Oxford’s history. We hope you’ll share your memories of the gallery with us online: #KALEIDOSCOPE Twitter @mao_gallery Instagram @mao_gallery IT’S ME TO THE WORLD: EXHIBITION NOTES
Transcript
MO
DE
RN
AR
T O
XF
OR
D
KA
LE
IDO
SC
OP
E
IT’S
ME
TO
TH
E W
OR
LD
20 Au
gu
st - 17 Octo
ber
Wel
com
e to
KA
LEID
OS
CO
PE
, a c
eleb
rati
on
of
50 y
ears
of
con
tem
po
rary
ar
t, p
erfo
rman
ce a
nd
exp
erim
enta
l vis
ual
cu
ltu
re a
t M
od
ern
Art
Oxf
ord
.
Bec
ause
it’s
a s
pec
ial y
ear,
we
dec
ided
to
try
so
met
hin
g a
litt
le d
iffer
ent.
In
stea
d o
f cl
osi
ng
wh
en a
rtw
ork
is b
ein
g in
stal
led
, th
e ga
lleri
es w
ill
be
op
en a
ll ye
ar r
ou
nd
in 2
016.
Th
is is
so
yo
u c
an g
limp
se b
ehin
d t
he
scen
es t
o s
ee t
he
exh
ibit
ion
s b
ein
g m
ade.
In K
ALE
IDO
SC
OP
E y
ou
’ll s
ee
wo
rks
fro
m p
ast
exh
ibit
ion
s at
Mo
der
n A
rt O
xfo
rd s
har
ing
sp
ace
wit
h a
n
exci
tin
g r
ost
er o
f n
ew c
om
mis
sio
ns.
Art
wo
rks
retu
rnin
g t
o t
he
galle
ry
fro
m a
cro
ss t
he
wo
rld
ap
pea
r al
on
gsi
de
wo
rks
by
arti
sts
sho
win
g h
ere
for
the
firs
t ti
me.
Th
e p
ast
and
th
e p
rese
nt
are
com
bin
ed in
wh
at w
e h
op
e yo
u w
ill fi
nd
en
gag
ing
, refl
exiv
e sh
ow
s th
at t
ou
ch o
n o
ne
of
ou
r m
ost
en
du
rin
g p
reo
ccu
pat
ion
s –
the
nat
ure
of
tim
e.
Ove
r 70
0 ex
hib
itio
ns
hav
e b
een
pre
sen
ted
at
Mo
der
n A
rt O
xfo
rd s
ince
th
e ga
llery
was
fo
un
ded
50
year
s ag
o. K
ALE
IDO
SC
OP
E d
oes
no
t ai
m t
o
be
a d
efin
itiv
e h
isto
rica
l acc
ou
nt
by
any
mea
ns.
It o
ffer
s a
snap
sho
t o
f so
me
of
the
man
y h
igh
ligh
ts in
ou
r h
isto
ry, c
aptu
red
in t
he
exh
ibit
ion
s,
per
form
ance
s, t
alks
an
d e
ven
ts t
akin
g p
lace
th
rou
gh
ou
t th
e ye
ar. I
t ai
ms
to r
eflec
t so
me
key
idea
s in
co
nte
mp
ora
ry a
rt o
ver
the
pas
t h
alf
a ce
ntu
ry.
It’s
Me
to t
he
Wo
rld
It’s
Me
to t
he
Wo
rld
is t
he
fou
rth
dis
pla
y in
KA
LEID
OS
CO
PE
. It
bri
ng
s to
get
her
art
ists
fro
m s
ever
al g
ener
atio
ns
wh
o a
dap
t fo
rms
fro
m n
atu
re
and
use
th
e b
od
y to
exp
lore
idea
s o
f p
erce
pti
on
, in
tim
acy
and
en
du
ran
ce.
Ove
r th
e la
st 5
0 ye
ars,
th
e ev
er-i
ncr
easi
ng
pre
sen
ce o
f d
igit
al
tech
no
log
ies
for
per
son
al u
se h
as a
rgu
ably
ch
ang
ed o
ur
rela
tio
nsh
ip w
ith
o
ur
imm
edia
te s
urr
ou
nd
ing
s. T
he
exp
ansi
on
of
urb
anis
atio
n, c
han
ges
to
th
e cl
imat
e an
d a
dec
reas
e in
nat
ura
l hab
itat
s m
ean
th
at o
pp
ort
un
itie
s to
b
e im
mer
sed
in n
atu
re g
row
eve
r m
ore
pre
cio
us.
Th
e ar
tist
s sh
ow
n h
ere
inve
stig
ate
ho
w w
e m
ay c
on
nec
t m
ore
dee
ply
w
ith
ou
rsel
ves
in r
elat
ion
to
ou
r n
atu
ral e
nvir
on
men
ts. T
his
exh
ibit
ion
in
vite
s yo
u t
o t
ake
a p
ause
, to
en
cou
nte
r th
e si
gh
ts a
nd
so
un
ds
of
the
artw
ork
, so
me
of
wh
ich
un
fold
in t
ime
rath
er t
han
exi
stin
g s
ole
ly a
s o
bje
cts
in s
pac
e.
Th
e ke
ysto
ne
for
this
exh
ibit
ion
is R
ich
ard
Lo
ng
’s a
stu
te s
tate
men
t o
f ac
tive
sel
f-aw
aren
ess:
“M
y fo
ots
tep
s m
ake
the
mar
k. M
y le
gs
carr
y m
e ac
ross
th
e co
un
try.
It’s
like
a w
ay o
f m
easu
rin
g t
he
wo
rld
. I lo
ve t
hat
co
nn
ecti
on
to
my
own
bo
dy.
It’s
me
to t
he
wo
rld
.”
KA
LEID
OS
CO
PE
cel
ebra
tes
the
role
art
pla
ys in
sh
apin
g o
ur
per
cep
tio
n o
f th
e w
orl
d. F
or
each
of
us,
ou
r vi
sual
per
cep
tio
n is
infl
uen
ced
as
mu
ch b
y o
ur
un
iqu
e ex
per
ien
ces
as w
hat
we
see
in f
ron
t o
f u
s. O
ur
inte
rest
is in
yo
ur
un
der
stan
din
g o
f co
nte
mp
ora
ry a
rt a
nd
life
. Wh
eth
er y
ou
’re
loo
kin
g
at a
pai
nti
ng
fro
m t
he
1960
s o
r w
atch
ing
a n
ew p
erfo
rman
ce, b
ein
g h
ere
you
are
als
o p
art
of
Mo
der
n A
rt O
xfo
rd’s
his
tory
. We
ho
pe
you
’ll s
har
e yo
ur
mem
ori
es o
f th
e ga
llery
wit
h u
s o
nlin
e:
#KA
LEID
OS
CO
PE
Tw
itter
@m
ao_g
alle
ry In
stag
ram
@m
ao_g
alle
ry
IT’S ME TO THE WORLD: EXHIBITION NOTES
Please ask our Visitor Assistants if you have any questions.
This exhibition guide is available in a large print format. Please ask at the Information Desk located in the Café.
Modern Art Oxford is grateful to the many individuals, companies
and organisations that have helped to realise this exhibition and the
KALEIDOSCOPE programme.
Upper GalleryMiddle Gallery
Piper Gallery
Richard Long (b.1945, Bristol, England)
Walking a Labyrinth, 1971 (2016)White China Clay, 745 x 1103 cm
Hannah Rickards (b.1979, London, England)
Thunder, 2005Audio installation with typewritten text, 300 minutes, looped
Marina AbramoviĆ (b.1946, Belgrade, Serbia)
Cleaning the Mirror I, 1995 Five-channel video installation with monitors (colour, sound), 248.48 x 62.23 x 48.26 cm, 14 minutes 33 seconds
Green Dragon Lying, 1989Iron, copper, mineral, 27 x 250 x 52.5 cm
Black Dragon, 1994 Pink quartz, metal brackets, Lucite plaque, 19 x 11.4 x 11.4 cm
Black Dragon, 1994Green quartz, metal brackets, Lucite plaque, 19 x 11.4 x 11.4 cm
Shoes for Departure, 1991Hewed amethyst, 17 x 51 x 53 cm
Marina AbramoviĆ is renowned as a pioneer of performance art. Her early works often tested the limits of audience interaction as well her own personal endurance. The artist describes her approach; “For me, performance is a holy ground. When I perform, I really step into a different state of consciousness.” The works in the Piper Gallery show the range of AbramoviĆ‘s practice from interactive sculpture, to performance and video.
Mohammed Qasim Ashfaq (b.1982, Falkirk, Scotland)
SHIFT, 2016Graphite, 250 cm (diameter)
Richard Long is known for his site-specific artworks, including outdoor sculptural arrangements and lengthy rural walks. His sculptures often comprise geometric forms such as squares and circles and are usually composed from materials found at the site in which they are made. In an interview, Long said, ”One thing I like about my work is all the different ways it can be in the world […] A local could walk by and not notice it, or notice it and not know anything about me. Or someone could come upon a circle and know it was a circle of mine. I really like the notion of the visibility or invisibility of the work as well as the permanence and transience.”
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Hannah Rickards is interested in the ways in which people express their experiences of the natural world through language. The work included here, Thunder, represents the attempt both to describe sound through musical notation, and then to recreate it with manmade instruments. “What you hear is an approximation of a thunderclap that’s been performed by six musical instruments, that has then been time compressed… It appears over the whole of the show like some kind of interrupter.”
Ashfaq makes drawings, sculptures and installations that reference the abstractions of Islamic art and 20th century Modernism. Using line and shape, his finished work has a pared-down aesthetic, although the process of making it is frequently complex. This vast wall drawing, which Ashfaq has made for this exhibition, took several months to test and prepare before it was created directly on the wall of the gallery. He explains; “It’s as if all my drawings have been leading to this one work, almost like a conclusion. The wall work just seems to be the natural peak of drawing. The simplicity of graphite and wall together creates a mirror of space.”
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Otobong Nkanga (b.1974, Kano, Nigeria)
Tsumeb Fragments, 2015Six modular metallic structures, cement, copper, twelve images inkjet printed on plexiglas, images inkjet printed on Galala limestone, lightbox, Tsumeb minerals, video Remains of the Green Hill 16:9, sound on headphones,Dimensions variable
Helen Chadwick (b.1953, Croydon, England, d.1996)
Viral Landscapes, 1989Five C-print photographs, powder coated steel, aluminium, plywood, Perspex, 120 x 300 x 5 cm (each)
Yoko Ono (b.1933, Tokyo, Japan)
Cloud Piece, 1963 (2016) Inkjet printed pad, 250 sheets, 14.8 x 14.8 cm
Agnes Martin (b.1912, Macklin, Canada, d. 2004)
On A Clear Day, 1973Thirty screenprints on paper, 30.5 cm x 30.5 cm each
Otobong Nkanga’s work explores memory, landscape and the legacy of colonialism in Nigeria. In sculpture, photography, video, textiles, painting and installation, the artist examines the wide-ranging political and economic implications of simple materials such as minerals. She says, “Everything we have, own or possess derives from the earth, even though it might have been transformed by artificial means. We are a species that is constantly adapting to circumstances and the places in which we live, but at the same time, we cannot disassociate ourselves from nature. We get floods, thunderstorms, heat waves, and these forces remind us that we live in nature.”
Helen Chadwick was known for her unconventional use of organic and manmade forms in challenging works of photography, sculpture and installation. In an interview, Chadwick discussed her examination of “the dimly charted corners of the id where sex drive, childhood memory, sense of place, the appetite for security, fear of dying and a host of other subcutaneous human motor forces squelch around the subconscious like mud wrestlers.”
One of a series of ‘instruction paintings’, Yoko Ono invites the viewer to participate in an alternative imaginary encounter with nature where fantastical possibilities can be not only conceived, but also realised.
Agnes Martin is one of the world’s most famous abstract artists. Her meditative drawings and paintings favour lines, grids and simple shapes executed in pale washes of colour. Martin spent most of her life living and working in rural New Mexico where she produced a focused and consistent body of work which sought personal spiritual transcendence through a reduced palette and set of forms. For Martin, “Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings.”
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Dorothy Cross (b. 1956, Cork, Ireland)
Doorway, 2014Wooden door and tree fungi, 198 x 71 x 19 cm
Buoy, 2014Blue shark skin, white gold leaf, antique easel, Italian alabaster, 180 x 130 x 80 cm
Distil, 2014Barrister’s wig, marble, glass, leather, mahogany, 152 x 57.7 cm
Scales, 2014Human skull, yellow gold leaf, coat hanger, steel wire, meteoritessuspended from ceiling, height variable, 83 x 50 x 13 cm
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Dorothy Cross scours the landscapes of rural Ireland for animal remnants and geological fragments. With an intuitive understanding of form and material, Cross combines natural and manmade fragments to produce evocative sculptures with great symbolic weight. The artist describes her approach to working with unconventional materials: “I have never been a landscape painter and I never could be, because I always felt that nature would beat anything that I could try to attempt to paint.”
