Alexandre Singh
Alexandre Singh – The Marque of the Third Stripe
12th May – June 14th 2008
(Italian text below)
Monitor gallery is pleased to present the first solo show in Italy of British artist Alexandre Singh (Bordeaux, 1980), the third recipient of its short-term residency programme for young international artists.
The exhibition’s title derives from the multi-faceted project The Marque of the Third Stripe, presented by Singh at East International 17 at the Norwich Gallery, UK (July 2007) and the Royal College of Art, London (May 2008).
The Marque of the Third Stripe is devoted to the figure of Adi Dassler, founder of the Adidas sports company. The project is articulated through a body of work ranging from collage to video to novella to site-specific installation.
Depicted in an atmosphere of light and shadow, the town of Herzogenaurach nestles “in a region of folded valleys towered over by the alarming spectre of the northern Alps”. Singh’s tale of Dassler’s deeds is faithfully written in the manner of a late-gothic novel in which the town awaits the birth of the large factory in which Adi Dassler’s shoes and souls will be fashioned. Meanwhile a shadowy presence inhabits the castle whose walls appear mysteriously overnight, and down below, the entire population is consumed in the eternal struggle between man and the divine.
The video component presents this tale through the voices of six Portugese women synchronised precisely to a hypnotic sequence of geometric symbols and patterns.
For his exhibition at Monitor, Singh has developed a mise en scène of the narrative through the superimposition of a modernist matrix over the existing gallery architecture.
This structure of straight parallel beams creates new spaces and forms as it carves out the volume of the room. Contained within this site-specific structure are a number of large-scale sculptures related to the universe of the narrative.
Acting as a counterpoint to the physical sculptures is an array of large frames containing inkjet prints that present the story through purported photocopies of a pre-existing novel.
Alexandre Singh
Alexandre Singh (Bordeaux 1980, lives in New York).
Solo Exhibitions:
2008, Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, USA (forthcoming); Hello Meth Lab in the Sun, Ballroom, Marfa, Texas; UNCLEHEAD, Museu da Electricidade, Fundacao EDP, Lisbon;
2007, The Marque of The Third Stripe, White Columns, New York.
Group Exhibitions:
2008, Art Cannot Be Untaught, La Rada, Locarno; Of This Tale, I Cannot Guarantee a Single Word, Royal College of Art, London; A New Hight in Getting Low, Artnews Projects, Berlin and John Connelly Presents, New York;
2007, East International Norwich; 9 or 10 works I used to like, in no order, Monitor, Rome; The First Antechamber, Projects Arts Center, Dublin; Temporary Measures, Associates, London;
2004, Romantic Detachment, PS1, New York.
Alexandre Singh – The Marque of the Third Stripe
12 maggio – 14 giugno 2008
La galleria Monitor è orgogliosa di presentare per la sua prima personale in Italia e terzo appuntamento del programma di brevi residenze per giovani artisti internazionali, l’artista inglese Alexandre Singh (Bordeaux, 1980).
Il titolo della mostra ricalca il complesso progetto The Marque of the Third Stripe, già realizzato da Singh per East International alla Norwich Gallery (luglio 2007), Norwich, UK e al Royal College di Londra (maggio 2008).
The Marque of the Third Stripe, interamente focalizzato sulla celebre figura di Adi Dassler, fondatore nel noto brand sportivo Adidas, si articola in un corpo di lavori che spaziano dal collage al video, dalla scrittura tout court all’installazione site specific.
In un’atmosfera fatta di ombre e luci, in “una cittadina annidata in una regione dove lo spettro allarmante delle Alpi si impone sulle valli più basse” si attende alla nascita di una grande fabbrica, in cui si forgiano scarpe e anime, mentre un oscura presenza abita un castello che vede mura ergersi nell’arco di una notte, e l’intera popolazione della città di Herzogenaurach assiste all’eterna lotta tra l’umano e il divino.
Il racconto delle gesta di Dassler, sviluppato seguendo la migliore tradizione della letteratura di matrice squisitamente gotica, viene narrato da sei voci di donne portoghesi, avvolgendo lo spettatore in una sequenza ipnotica di pattern e simboli geometrici.
Nel caso di Monitor, Singh opera una mese en scene attraverso una decostruzione dello spazio espositivo della galleria realizzando un environment che segue le linee guida dell’architettura preesistente creando un’interazione di nuovi spazi e volumi secondo un impianto di matrice modernista (o forse come sottolinea Kate Stancliff, di astrazione modernista).
Fanno da coltraltare nello spazio, una scultura su larga scala, anch’essa site-specific e in relazione all’installazione e una serie di diciassette grandi stampe che illustrano le pagine del racconto.
Alexandre Singh
Alexandre Singh (Bordeaux 1980, vive a New York).
Solo Exhibition:
2008, Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, USA (forthcoming); Hello Meth Lab in the Sun, Ballroom, Marfa, Texas; UNCLEHEAD, Museu da Electricidade, Fundacao EDP, Lisbon;
2007, The Marque of The Third Stripe, White Columns, New York.
Group Exhibition:
2008, Art Cannot Be Untaught, La Rada, Locarno; Of this Tale, I cannot guarantee a single word, Royal College of Art, London; A New Hight in Getting Low, Artnews Projects, Berlino e John Connelly Presents, New York;
2007, East International Norwich; 9 or 10 works I used to like, in no order, Monitor, Roma; The First Antechamber, Projects Arts Center, Dublino; Temporary Measures, Associates, London;
2004, Romantic Detachment, PS1, New York.
