JESSE ASH

Is That ‘Crystal Clear’ Or Did I Say Too Much?

26 Maggio – 26 luglio 2014

Monitor è lieta di annunciare la nuova mostra personale dell’artista inglese Jesse Ash. Il titolo della mostra Is That ‘Crystal Clear’ Or Did I Say Too Much?, si riferisce ad un fatto accaduto prima della vicenda Wikileaks nel 2009, nel quale uno studente pakistano è stato arrestato a Manchester, dopo che le sue lettere d’amore inviate alla fidanzata via e-mail sono state interpretate come codice per un attacco terroristico. Parole come ‘cristallino’, erano state erroneamente tradotte come ‘materiale esplosivo’.

La mostra rappresenta una nuova tappa del progetto Avoidance—Avoidance (A Project of Transparency) concepito dall’artista per essere rappresentato in diverse forme e luoghi. Iniziato nel dicembre 2012, esso ha infatti visto il coinvolgimento di diversi partner internazionali: Index—The Sweedish Centre for Contemporary Art, Stoccolma; CAC Bretigny, Parigi; Arnolfini, Bristol; Museo Marino Marini, Firenze;Mendes Wood, Sao Paolo ed infine Steirischerherbst, Graz.

Il museo Marino Marini ospiterà Avoidance – Avoidance (A Project of Transparency) [script 7], giovedì 22 maggio alle ore 20.30 che sarà seguito a pochi giorni di distanza dalla presentazione di Monitor dello script che rappresenta il successivo capitolo della performance ‘in-progress’.
Avoidance – Avoidance (A Project of Transparency) ha lo sviluppo narrativo di una sceneggiatura incentrata su due personaggi, un uomo e una donna, che rivivono il fallimento della loro relazione come modo per ricorrere a forme di trasparenza materiale, personale, concettuale e politica. I due interpreti si ispirano alle figure della film-maker Mary Ellen Bute e del suo compagno Ted Nemeth, direttore della fotografia, ai quali venne commissionato, nel 1936, la realizzazione di un cortometraggio per la Universal Newsreel. L’etica e la politica dietro l’incarico sono il tema centrale della trama, che permette ai due attori di interagire con le sculture, i disegni, i dipinti e il film che vengono prodotti e chiamati in causa nel corso dello sviluppo narrativo del dialogo.

Nella performance presentata a Monitor, la protagonista femminile descrive la sua ansia di essere osservata e la conseguente paranoia che si manifesta nel vedere messaggi nascosti in oggetti di uso quotidiano come elementi da giardino. Questa condizione psicologica porta la coppia ad intraprendere uno strano pellegrinaggio in tutto il mondo, viaggiando attraverso Hong Kong, Mosca, L’Avana e Quito.

La performance verrà inserita nel contesto della mostra della galleria che utilizzerà in parte gli scenari del museo Marino Marini, in parte le opere esposte nei propri spazi tra cui una serie di sfere dipinte che raffigurano zone di transito – terminal di aereoporti, disegni di grandi dimensioni che raffigurano intricati giardini e piccoli acquerelli che rappresentano elementi geometici.
Questi ultimi, sono infatti strettamente legati al nuovo lavoro video di Ash che sarà altro elemento portante della mostra e che é ispirato alle grafiche di campagne elettorali in onda nei palinsesti televisivi notturni. In esso forme, movimenti e colori sono stati realizzati a mano dall’artista e successivamente trasformate in un’atmosfera sognante e seducente, grazie anche al contributo delle musiche ipnotiche di Tristan Shorr, appositamente composte per il video.

La performance di Jesse Ash Avoidance—Avoidance (A Project of Transparency) [script 8] si svolgerà il 26 Maggio alle ore 7.30 pm. Performer: Maria Caterina Frani and Benno Steinegger

 


ENGLISH VERSION

Jesse Ash

Is That ‘Crystal Clear’ Or Did I Say Too Much?

May 26th – July 26th 2014 

Monitor is pleased to announce the opening of its new solo show devoted to British artist Jesse Ash. The title of the show, Is That ‘Crystal Clear’ Or Did I Say Too Much?, refers to a 2009 pre-wikileaks story where a Pakistani student was arrested in Manchester after his love letters to his girlfriend via email were interpreted as code for a terrorist bomb plot. These emails including phrases such as ‘crystal clear’ which were wrongly translated as ‘an explosive material’.

The show stands as the latest episode of the Avoidance—Avoidance (A Project of Transparency) project, conceived by Ash to be represented in different forms and venues. Started in December 2012, the project has already involved a number of international partners including Index—The Sweedish Centre for Contemporary Art, Stockholm; CAC Bretigny, Paris; Arnolfini, Bristol; the Museo Marino Marini, Florence; Mendes Wood, Sao Paolo and Steirischerherbst in Graz.

On May 22nd at 8.30pm the Museo Marino Marini will host Avoidance – Avoidance (A Project of Transparency) [script 7], which will be shortly followed by Monitor’s presentation of the following script as the subsequent chapter of the on-going performance.

Avoidance – Avoidance (A Project of Transparency) has the narrative development of a script featuring two lead characters, a man and a woman, living out the breakup of their relationship and acts as a means to refer as to various forms of transparency, be it on a material, personal, conceptual or political level. The two actors take their cue from the real-life figures of filmmaker Mary Ellen Bute and her director-of-photography partner Ted Nemeth, who were commissioned a short film for Universal Newsreel in 1936. The ethics and politics behind the commission are central to the plot, allowing the two leads to interact with the sculptures, drawings, paintings and films that are produced and informed by the dialogue.

In the performance presented at Monitor, the lead female character describes her anxiety at being watched and the consequent paranoia that manifests itself in hidden messages contained in everyday things such as garden flower bed arrangements. This psychological condition leads the couple to embark on a strange pilgrimage across the world travelling through Hong Kong, Moscow, Havana and Quito.

The performance staged within the gallery will employ some of the sets used at the Marino Marini, a series of oil painted spheres informed by the architecture of transit areas and airports, large-scale drawings of elaborate gardens and small-scale geometric watercolours.

The geometric watercolours are closely related to Ash’s latest video project, Magic If, which will be the other main feature of the show and which was inspired by the election night graphics aired on TV. The forms, movements and colours in the video were created by hand by Ash himself and subsequently transposed into a dreamy, seductive register thanks also to the hypnotic music composed expressly for the project by Tristan Shorr.

 Jesse Ash’s performance Avoidance—Avoidance (A Project of Transparency)[script 8]will take place on May 26th at 7.30 pm. Performer: Maria CaterinaFrani andBennoSteinegger


Jesse Ash

Jesse Ash born in 1977 lives and works in London

Solo shows: 2014 The Two Scene, Mendes Wood DM | West Room (upcoming), Avoidance – Avoidance (A Project of Transparency) [script 7], Museo Marino Marini, Florence; 2013 Avoidance—Avoidance (A Project of Transparency), Arnolfini, Bristol, Avoidance—Avoidance (A Project of Transparency), CAC Bretigny, Paris; 2012 A Treatment for Outcomes, with Sarah May, Cura. and Monitor Gallery, Metropolitan University, 41-47 Commercial Road (Aldgate East), London; 2011 The Sculptor’s Nightmare, Tulips & Roses, Brussels; 2009 A Battle for Narrative, Monitor, Rome The Buried Lede, Tulips and Roses, Vilnius Crisp Gallery, London Crisp Gallery, Los Angeles.
Group shows (selected): 2013 The Moveable Column with Cally Spooner, Tate Britain, London, Cut and Paste, BMoCA Colorado, USA Sin motivo aparente, CA2M, Madrid: Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Spain 2012 Beatrice Gibson: The Tiger’s Mind, The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation, Stockholm, Composing a Battle for Narrative, MAMBO: Bologna, SOUNDWORKS, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), London, Invisible Ink, Mendes Wood gallery, curated by Carly McGoldrick and Caroline Drake, San Paolo, Brazil, Collages, Gallerie Thaddaeus Ropac, curated by Timothéè Chaillou, Paris, France, 2011 An Exhibition of Distances, Tulips and Roses, Brussels; The Perfect Place for Free Speech is your Eyes, Kunstlerhaus, Bremen; Voices from Silence – Truths Unveiled by Time, Galerie Odpahl, Berlin a cura di Ilaria Gianni; Session_12_Words + Untitiled a cura di Am Nuden Da, Four Boxes, Denmark; , The Plurality of One, Monitor, Rome curated by FormContent; The Happy Interval, Croy Nielsen, Berlin.