IMPORT projects

TECHNICOLOUR YAWN

Steve Bishop - Ed Fornieles - James Howard - Shana Moulton - Ryan Trecartin

Artists: Steve Bishop (UK), Ed Fornieles (UK), James Howard (UK) Shana Moulton (US), Ryan Trecartin (US)

Vernissage: 18.00-22.00. May 25 (2012)
Open hours: 12.00-18.00. May 25 – June 20 (2012)

Special Screening of Ryan Trecartin´s Roamie View – History Enhancement (Re´Search Wait´S) and The Re´Search (Re´Search Wait´S), 2009-2010.

Curator: Nadim Samman
Venue: Import projects – Keithstrasse 10, 10787 Berlin
import-projects.org

TECHNICOLOUR YAWN is a transatlantic take on networked self-exposure, consumer mysticism and indifference. It is also the inaugural exhibition of Import projects – a new non-profit project space in Charlottenburg.

TECHNICOLOUR YAWN sets the (multihued) tone for a group exhibition featuring some of the most exciting young artists working in the United States of America and United Kingdom today. The title links sensorial overload (associated with technologies of representation) to boredom. Beyond this well-known relationship it also highlights the themes of compulsion and distaste – as a ´techinicolour yawn` is a euphemistic expression for a forceful bout of projectile vomit.

An axis of excess, indifference and convulsive (self)exposure is an all-pervasive feature of our contemporary culture. In accordance with this ´real`, the featured works invoke incessant pseudo communication and the theme of questionable revelation and bodily discipline. Within their various media, profusion of visual and aural noise is the surface rule and the possibility of an exclusive inner space or life is unsettled.

TECHNICOLOUR YAWN features an extensive series of newly commissioned banners by James Howard, and a new multimedia installation by Ed Fornieles alongside a Listerine sculpture by Steve Bishop and films by Shana Moulton and Ryan Trecartin (special screening).

Ryan Trecartin, The Re´Search, 2009-2010

Ryan Trecartin (b.1981) writes, directs and stars in unorthodox low-budget epics for the YouTube generation, in which fragmentary narratives move at hyperspeed with all the non-subtlety of viral videos, multi-screen instant messaging and the laughter of wannabe reality stars. The recent recipient of the New Artist of the Year Award, presented at the Guggenheim Museum, and the Jack Wolgin International Prize in the Fine Arts, awarded by Temple University in Philadelphia, Trecartin has had solo exhibitions at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, PS1 (New York) and the Musée d´Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

Steve Bishop, φ , stainless steel., 2010, 155.6x96x2cm

Steve Bishop´s (b.1983) sculptural practice engages the history of minimalism, frequently incorporating the material qualities found in contemporary consumer products. Listerine (coolmint) His contribution to Technicolour Yawn emphasizes the slippage between object and a vessel. This double function relates to the history of idolatry, where a form is both a representation and manifestation of its subject. His work has been exhibited at the Zabludowicz Collection, Stephen Friedman, A Foundation and the Saatchi Gallery, London, amongst others.

Ed Fornieles, Adventureland, Steel, glass, Twitter feed, computers, Spiderman costume, nylon leggings, Dorm Daze photographs, stretch Scooby-Doo, cotton candy, knife, comics, 202 x 231 x 54 cm, 2011

Ed Fornieles´s (b.1983) work addresses the performative dimension of social media, exploring the creation of new subjectivities, roles and commercial archetypes. His recent projects have also questioned the boundaries between virtual selves and offline identity, blurring distinctions between the two. His work has been featured at Modern Art Oxford, Barbican Art Gallery, Kenneth Anger Institute of Art, Royal College of Art and Guest Projects, London.

James Howard, Poster series, Frankfurter Kunstverein Museum, April 2012

James Howard (b. 1981) is fascinated with spam emails whose intent is fraudulent or which attempt to sell questionable consumer products. A student of internet scam strategies and an aficionado of the low-grade communication often associated with them, his recent work samples texts and images hijacked from real emails in his junk folder. The resulting collages are displayed as posters and screen grabs. The effect is a litany of enticement, preying on our perceived insecurities, and a garish portrait of the background/marginal commercial communication of our day. His work has recently been exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery and at the Frankfurter Kunstverein.

Shana Moulton, The Mountain Where Everything is Upside Down, 2008, Video, 4min

Shana Moulton´s (b.1976) installation and performance practice begins with her fictional alter-ego, Cynthia, a hypochondriac housewife fixated upon miracle cures, tv-shopping products and New Age rituals. Although Cynthia believes in the unity of the universe, she lives in a social vacuum. Nevertheless, the sculptural setting in which the videos are presented involve the viewer in her vision. For a brief moment the audience partakes of her low-tech Pop fantasy life in which objects and consumer products are at once banal and uncanny. Her video work has been screened and exhibited internationally, including at Art in General, New York, Migros Museum, Zurich; Contemporary Museum of Art, Uppsala; Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin, Paris; Aurora, Edinburgh; Dark Light Festival, Dublin; Impakt Festival, Utrecht; Internationale Kurzfilmtage, Oberhausen; Broadway 1602, New York; and Gimpel Fils, London. Moulton´s performances have been presented at venues including The Kitchen, New York; PERFORMA 09, New York; Aurora Picture Show, Houston; Electronic Arts Intermix, New York; The Bluecoat, Liverpool; Socrates Sculpture Park, New York; among others.

About Import Projects:

IMPORT projects is a nonprofit curatorial initiative founded in 2012 by Nadim Samman and Anja Henckel. Hosting exhibitions, performances and symposia, IMPORT provides an experimental platform for contemporary cultural production and debate, primarily exploring the intersection of technology, personal identity and community. While physically operating out of Berlin, IMPORT engages global concerns.

Co-directors – Nadim Julien Samman & Anja Marina Henckel

Nadim Samman read Philosophy at University College London before completing a doctorate at the Courtauld Institute of Art. He has written for publications including Third Text, The Art Newspaper, Art Review, Contemporary, Asian Affairs, Art India, Artchronika, Erotic Review, Naked Punch, Under/current and WestEast. In 2011 he was Co-curator of One of a Thousand Ways to Defeat Entropy – an Official Collateral Project of the 54th Venice Biennale, and in 2012 he curated the 4th Marrakech Biennale with Carson Chan. He is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). nadimsamman.com

Anja Henckel is an artist and photographer based in Berlin and London. Prior to completing her Fine Art studies at the University of the Arts London she studied history and geography in Berlin. Committed to cultural exchange, since 2006 Anja has also worked as an Educational Study Tour Director throughout Europe.

IMPORT projects
Keithstrasse 10
10787 Berlin
info@import-projects.org
IMPORT projects