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Press Release: Fallen Out Of Space, 14 - 20 October 2009

Michael Dean, (i) t h t s (working title), 2009, latex balloons; (ii) (untitled), 2009, Black cement, courtesy the artist and WORKSPROJECTS, Bristol

PRESS RELEASE

FALLEN OUT OF SPACE
14 October – 20 October 2009

To coincide with the international Frieze Art Fair in London, Dutch collector Jan Mol has invited Maurice van Valen to curate an exhibition at Mol's private gallery space in Covent Garden. Fallen Out Of Space brings together an exciting selection of sculptures, objects, paintings, drawings and videos by British and UK based artists Anna Barham, Michael Dean, Andy Holden, Des Hughes, Maaike Schoorel and Claire Todd.

Fallen Out Of Space is an exhibition of otherworldliness where artworks communicate through ambiguous, cryptic and disguised means. Through processes of transformation familiar subjects such as mathematics, language and geology become unfamiliar, fantastical and uncanny.

The works possess a dislodged and eerie quality, which is strengthened when placed within the domestic walls of Mol’s Place. Simultaneously referencing ancient and futuristic civilizations, some of the works appear as unidentified archaeological findings that humorously embellish our collective imagination of science fiction.

Anna Barham’s texts written from anagrams, and her randomly programmed light sculptures, both use systems of permutation to celebrate the potential and mutability of language and form. They reveal the seeming constriction of mechanical/mathematical methods to be a site for imagination
and expansion.

Michael Dean transforms moments of personal intensity into words, which, in turn, are transposed into illegible structures made of black cement, sticks and balloons. These mysterious objects appear at once indigenous and extraterrestrial.

Andy Holden’s practice incorporates a wide range of media. The works often have humorous, absurd and psychedelic qualities. His eclectic range of forms includes stalagmites made from layers of coloured plaster and a film of an enormous wooden boulder perplexingly positioned in a pastoral Dutch landscape.

Des Hughes’ works play with traditions of British Modernist sculpture and have macabre, esoteric and humorous qualities. His work often references rituals, myths or objects from the past. His work ranges from prehistoric flints cast in bronze to gas-lit polyester resin casts of the artist’s hand arranged on a stand for prayer candles.

Whilst they often reveal intimate settings, Maaike Schoorel’s bright canvasses have an ethereal and illusionary appearance. Across her compositions Schoorel maps forms, like coordinates, to present spatial clues towards absence and presence.

Claire Todd’s subject matter encompasses movements, characters and gestures of a transcendental and fantastic nature, often set against a background of natural phenomena. Todd’s rhythmic and emotional flurries of watercolour pencil create miraculous spatial hybrids of terrain for her characters to inhabit.


Curated and organised by:

Maurice van Valen, Raj Bowie, Katy Orkisz, Melissa Blanchflower and Aimée Neat

Andy Holden performance 20th October 2009

To celebrate the final day of Fallen Out Of Space, Andy Holden staged a live evening perfomance of Two Short Works in Time: Last Stop for the Good Old Times, a work for piano quintet, marble game and live projection, The Third Attempt (A Meditation on the Dumb Motif), 16mm film and string quartet.

The live event activated Holden's film which was projected above the fireplace at Mol's Place throughout the week-long exhibition. This intimate and beautiful performance, for thirty invited guests and within the soaring grand walls of Mol's Place, involved film, a live camera projection, spoken word, piano, electronics and a string quartet playing music by The Grubby Mitts and Johnny Parry, conducted by John Parry. The musical and visual piece explores the relationship between sculptural object and duration, and in March 2010 it was performed at Tate Britain at part of the BP Saturdays: Going Live programme.

Best of the rest in Frieze week 2009

Fallen Out of Space is recommended by the Evening Standard as one of the 'best of the rest' exhibitions in London during Frieze week 2009.

Ben Lewis "Amazing private architect-designed home of collector Jan Mol, in the heart of Covent Garden, which is opened a only couple of times a year. The art on the walls comes from a variety of younger artists based in the UK".

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/article-23756960-all-the-fun-without-the-fair.do