John Gerrard Animated Scene

RHA Projects, Dublin, is pleased to announce John Gerrard Animated Scene, a solo exhibition and collateral project at the 53rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. Three new works will be presented as large-scale projections in a boathouse on the former monastery island of Certosa, marking the first time that this venue will be used for the Biennale. John Gerrard creates virtual scenes, astonishingly real but entirely and meticulously fabricated by the artist and his studio. Produced between 2007-9 and each requiring up to a year to build, the works document agri-industrial landscapes of the American Great Plains, scattered with grain silos, pig production units and small towns. From the unflinching, observatory vantage point of an orbital camera, the viewer is encouraged to look at these desolate places and in so doing address the underlying structures that sustain contemporary society. Much of what one finds relates to a nitrogen and oil based reality, dehumanised and existing on the outer limits of what is environmentally possible or even plausible. The project’s title, Animated Scene, refers to the position that these damaged post Dust Bowl sites occupy within the realm of globalised power, politics and society. Remade, they exist as parallell worlds, frozen in time to function as discursive points in the wider social landscape. The site of Animated Scene, the largely wooded and richly historical Island of Certosa, is a wilderness of beaches, goats and mulberry trees located just two boat stops from the Giardini. The artist plans to use its remarkable 12th century cloister to frame a series of meetings and dialogues with visitors. A fourth work from the series will be shown concurrently at the Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, as part of Infinitum, the final part of a trilogy of exhibitions mounted by Axel Vervoordt which began in 2007 with Artempo: When Time Becomes Art.

RHA Projects, Dublin, announces:

John Gerrard Animated Scene
A collateral project at the 53rd International
Art Exhibition, La Bienniale Di Venezia
53. Biennale Venedig 2009
Kurator: Jasper Sharp
Ort: Isola di Certosa, Venice

Übersicht - Biennale Venedig 2009