New York-based contemporary art stalwarts Liam Gillick and Louise Lawler have pooled their creative talents for a new show in Chelsea. Titled ’November 1-December 21’ - referencing the length of the exhibition - the installation at Casey Kaplan gallery displays their work side-by-side.
’Each of us sets the scene,’ says Gillick. ’The resulting exhibition layers our works onto the gallery rather than simply placing them within it.’
Gillick has created a large-scale installation of hanging text suspended from the gallery’s ceiling, while Lawler’s photographs surround the space. Lawler, who is known for her critique of the display and documentation of art, has selected two of her photographs - one of the negative space between works by Carl Andre, Richard Serra and Gerhard Richter displayed in a gallery, and another of Edgar Degas’ 14-year old ballet dancer, Marie Geneviéve van Goethem - and stretched them along the walls of the space. The new site-specific pieces are distorted into unrecognisable streaks of colour that encircle the gallery.
In contrast, Gillick’s hanging installation, ’Övningskörning (Driving Practice Parts 1-30)’ - first shown at the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2004 and now presented at Casey Kaplan in a more compressed, easier to read fashion - is a clear, unabashed statement that hangs above visitors’ heads. The text describes a scenario written by Gillick in response to a site visit to Kalmar, Sweden, where Volvo first instituted its socialistic approach to auto-manufacturing. Using aluminium letters, Gillick outlines how auto-production could be controlled after the organised systems have broken down.
Despite being completely loyal to each artist’s style, both works not only comment on the power of abstraction, but also the framework of art itself. Like its title suggests, this rare visual dialogue is on view for a limited time only, so get in while it lasts.
