the Agency
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_______________________________________________________________ Eduardo Padilha, Untitled [Footballers], detail, 2011
_______________________________________________________________ Eduardo Padilha, Untitled[Footballers], 2011, wall collage, vintage phtographs, acetate,
_______________________________________________________________ Eduardo Padilha, Installation View, 2011, steel and sandblasted glass,
_______________________________________________________________ Eduardo Padilha, Untitled, 2011 ,assemblage, handpainted found mattrass cover,
_______________________________________________________________ Eduardo Padilha, Orbits, 2011, wood, polyutherane, pins and sequins
_______________________________________________________________ Eduardo Padilha, Orbits, detail, 2011, wood, polyutherane, pins and sequins
___________________________________________________________ Deepa Chudasama , Chandigarh Loop, Installation View, 2011 ___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________ Deepa Chudasama , Chandigarh Loop, Sculpture, looped Cable Ties, 2011 ___________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________ Eduardo Padilha, Orbits, Gallery 1Deepa Chudasama, Chandigarh Loop, Gallery 2Simon Schaefer Live on Fri 28 Oct 2011_______________________________________
The Agency is pleased to present the latest series of works by Eduardo Padilha, who divides his time between Brazil and the UK. Utilising found and sourced materials from urban contexts, Padilha effortlessly inserts them into a proto-modernist artistic language, paying homage to design, architecture as well as artistic formalism. The display consists of recent large-scale works using different techniques, which are nonetheless bound together by a consistent formal language and the use of luminosity and strong colour. The placement of works provocatively clashes between a museal hang and domestic interior design. This clash is also echoed in the utilitarian/ non-utilitarian dichotomy within each of the works. The central sculptural piece literally rests on the metallic structures of a number of Butterfly chairs. The Butterfly chair was designed by the Argentinian designer Jose Ferrari Hardoy in 1938 for 'Grupo Austral'. As a design classic it is ubiquitously recognisable. The covers of the chairs have been removed and instead pieces of glass rest against the tower-like constructions. The work teeters on the brink of collapse and construction. Formally it reminds of the Kurt Schwitters' sculptural "Merz" pieces, were it not for the conscious use of multiple identical chairs and machine cut glass. For Padilha, the aesthetic of modernity signifies the comfort of memory, while the found objects are more of an autobiographical expression of global transience. In "Orbits" ephemeral sequins are loosely held in dense wood panels with small panel pins. The works attract through the details of the shiny surfaces. When stepping back from the works they reveal a play on pixilation as a metaphor for contemporary abstraction. Eduardo Padilha, Study for 'Screen', 2011, wood and porcelain These works hold the key for the presence of other technically distinct pieces, which form part of the exhibition. Two photographic pieces using found images and made images continue the notion of layering, collage and the loose play on abstraction. Vintage photographs of Brazilian footballers layered with monochrome acetate assemble to a conceptual wall pattern, while hyper-exposed close-ups of ubiquitous garden roses are used as components of an assemblage of subtle colour shifts. Collectively the works are displayed like a collection shaped by individual taste. Coincidence and private selection inform the assemblages. The interplay between wall mounted collages and floor pieces play on the architecture of the gallery space, which itself rests on the tension between its former domestic purpose and the current gallery use. 'Orbits' is a further exploration of Padilha's work, which, for over a decade, has been engaging with the dichotomy between private and public. Born in 1964, Brazil, Eduardo Padilha was educated in Amsterdam and at Chelsea College of Art . His solo Exhibitions include a/o 2010, 'The dog builds its den, The mouse builds its burrow', Smart Project Space, Amsterdam, 2004 'Viva lost Vagueness' Traders Pop Gallery, Maastricht; 2000 'Dark Habits', IniVA, London. Group Exhibitions include 2010 'Lucht is taasbarde dan mijn gedachte', curated by Annemie van Laethem, Oude-Rekem, Belgium, 2009 'Coalesce: Happenstance', Smart Projects, curated by Paul O'Neill, Amsterdam, 2008 'Mundos Locais', curated by Lucia Marques/Paula Rousch, Lagos, Portugal, 'One thing against the another', curated by Oliver Sumner, aspex, Portsmouth, UK 2007, 'Full Circle', Eduardo Padilha/Michael Schwab, Huisrecht Project, Amsterdam, ' Tipos Moviles', sala de proyectos. Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia 2005 'Jamaican Flux', Jamaican Art Center, Bronco Video Series, New York.
Chandigarh LoopDeepa Chudasama, Gallery 2The Agency is presenting Deepa Chudasama for the second time with Chandrigarh loop, series of abstract relief pieces made from industrial plastic components and weaves. The works reflect architectural structures and patterns and rigorous application of industrial materials, however, they also emphasise the hand-made and organic structures. The two elements are not presented opposed to each other but complimentary, as it occurs within architecture. Commissioned by Nehru to reflect the new nation's modern, progressive outlook, Chandigarh was designed by Le Corbusier in the 1950s, also containing architecture by Pierre Jeanneret, Matthew Nowicki, and Albert Mayer. Chudasama takes the concept of the utilitarian modernism to create pieces, which are minimalist in appearance with an underlying nod to craft and non-Western heritage. The use of mass-produced plastic building components such as cable ties are alienated from their original purpose and applied in a craft-like manner by looping and weaving them painstakingly by hand into each other or into netting structures in rhythmic and organic patterns. The technique is applied to wall based works as well as sculptural pieces. Whilst the industrial nature of the components enforces a certain geometric rigidity, the underlying patterns either are the result of constant layering referencing biological or molecular structures or alternatively patterns taken from Indian traditions such as mendhi (henna tattoo) and dance rituals. Elements of the artist's Gujarati roots are subtle influences, not as traditional heritage but in the sense of a creolisation of the artistic language. Chandigarh Loop is an exhibition grounded in and breaking out of formal abstraction. Chudasama's works are 'architectural ' in their nature. Her 'bindi drawings' have been applied in site-specific contexts much like graffiti and many of her concepts work within the gallery space as well as being expandable into the public realm. Deepa Chudasama lives and works in London. She has since shown widely, a/o. Message to India, British Council touring exhibition, a solo show at the Agency, London, Gallery 2 and was most recently included in Deptford X 2009 and 2010, London. She is currently Artist in Residence at the St Bart's Hospital. Simon Schäfer Travelling at the speed of thought, with machines bent beyond recognition. A blind flight, senses wide open.Exploring sights and sounds. Internal External Bright Dark Analog Digital Quiet Loud. German artist Simon Schaefer dismantles and reassembles existing computers to build the machines that create live and recorded sound. Circuit bending is the creative customization of the circuits within electronic devices such as low voltage, battery-powered digital synthesizers to create new musical instruments. Schaefer also uses gameboys and nintendo devices and links the manipulated gadgets, which he calls warstruments, with visuals to create an orchestral and sculptural experience. 'der Warst' /Simon Schaefer most recently played in Hochheim, Germany, Campobasso at Berliner Platz and 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands and forthcoming as part of Scratch Nights, Milton Keynes Gallery. Born 1978 , RCA MA graduate Simon Schaefer works on his own and under the band name 'der Warst' and has played and shown internationally.
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