DatesTextImagesBios
Fay Nicolson, Marginal Notes, 2008- ongoing series.

Art Rotterdam 2015

Cathy Haynes, Erika Hock, Fay Nicolson, Ilona Sagar

5 until 8 February 2015

Main Section, Stand 14

For Art Rotterdam 2015, Tenderpixel presents four artists, Cathy Haynes, Erika Hock, Fay Nicolson and Ilona Sagar. Taking the subject of folding and unfolding space and time in relation to human perception of materiality and form, the artists will present recent work that explore the way we have been making sense of the world around us throughout history.

Cathy Haynes’ research lead approach centres upon a human or internal landscape of time. Life Map (Tristram Shandy) amplifies the most significant visual element of Laurence Sterne’s book, its marbled pages. The original first edition included hand-marbled pages which meant that every copy was unique. As part of her her residency as Timekeeper at the Petrie Museum in London, Haynes made a 3D diagram of 35 historical pictures and models of time, and traced how over history our metaphors of time seem to vacillate between abstract forms and concrete objects. Geometries of Time are a set of drawings that attempt to show how the various models can be divided into four basic shapes.

Erika Hock’s practice is characterised by the fluid crossover in between sculptural and architectural elements. Her recent interest that extends into tapestries and furniture, that investigate meeting points between history, society and culture. In her series Elbows and Knees the choreography of objects in relationship to architecture take the shape of different deconstructions of furniture that inhabit the space as living beings. These structures reflect our changing relationship with how we navigate time and space as well as the modernist heritage.

Fay Nicolson combines a research-based approach alongside a both formal and abstract sensibility. Her work employs an economy of forms that are recursively applied to a range of materials, including clay, paper, photographic paper and fabric. Often, her practice recalls historical antecedents across design, art and radical pedagogy. Exploring the tacit existence of objects with an acute sense both of materiality and the transient, her Marginal Notes point to an abundance of options, highlighting the importance of chance encounters.

Through her new film, Haptic Skins of a Glass Eye, Ilona Sagar explores the history of clear glass discovered in the 15th century, and how built environment is capable of effecting not only the ways we operate in our daily life but also our health. The psychiatric condition, called ‘the glass delusion’ is described in the video with complimentary fleshy and tactile imagery depictions of materials and sensations. A disembodied or misplaced body’s experience is further articulated in the audio piece, Soft Addictions. The body swiftly responds even to subtle shifts in everyday tools and regular environments. Advancements in information technology have left a messy physiological residue. The fixation of virtual space as indiscriminate to absolute space reinforces corporeality as the site where internal and external languages collide.

Booth View, Art Rotterdam 2015.

Booth View, Art Rotterdam 2015.

Booth View, Art Rotterdam 2015.

Ilona Sagar, Haptic Skins of a Glass Eye, 2014-2015.

Ilona Sagar, Constant Object II, 2015.

Cathy Haynes, Geometries of Time, 2012. Tenderpixel.

Cathy Haynes, Life Map (Tristram Shandy), 2012. Tenderpixel.

Cathy Haynes, Life Map (Tristram Shandy), 2012. Detail.

Cathy Haynes, Life Map (Tristram Shandy), 2012. Detail.

Cathy Haynes, Life Map (Tristram Shandy), 2012. Detail.

Fay Nicolson, Marginal Notes, 2008-ongoing. Booth View.

Cathy Haynes (b 1973, lives and works in London) is an artist, curator and writer. 

She holds an MPhil in History (2006) and MA (dist.) in culture studies and critical theory (Media & Communications, 1997), both from Goldsmiths University of London. She received her BA (1st Class) Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University in 1995. 

She is a founder faculty member and the former Curator at The School of Life. Previously she was Curator for Art on the Underground, London, and Head of Interaction at Artangel UK. Recent projects and exhibitions include Chisenhale Gallery’s artist in residence in Victoria Park, London UK developing the research project, Stereochron Island, throughout spring/summer 2014; Tomb, Shrine, Survey-Marker, Spare Part, Enclave, London UK; before breakfast we talked about the furthest visible point before it all disappeared, Tenderpixel, London UK; CHRONOVISOR : ARCHIVE, South Kiosk, London UK(all 2014); A Storm is Blowing, UCL Petrie Museum, London UK (2013); How to Map a Life, Rongwrong Gallery, Amsterdam NL (2012) and No Such Place, QUAD, Derby UK (2010). From 2006 to 2009 Haynes collaborated with Sally O’Reilly to make Implicasphere, a serial mini-publication distributed inside Cabinet magazine. 

Erika Hock (b 1981 Dschangi-Dscher, Kyrgyz Republic) lives and works in Brussels and Duesseldorf. She graduated from the HISK – Higher Institute for Fine Arts, Ghent BE in 2013 and completed studies at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf DE in 2009 under Professors Rita McBride and Irmin Kamp.

Recent solo show include those at Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg At (2015);  Elbows & Knees, COSAR HMT Gallery, Düsseldorf DE (2015);  The Seamstress, Her Misstress, the Mason and the Thief, Tenderpixel, London UK (2014); Kunst aus NRW, Aachen-Kornelimünster (with Jan Paul Evers) (2013); Architecture, Anyone? Het Paviljoen, Ghent (in collaboration with Clare Noonan) (2013);  New Positions, Art Cologne with COSAR HMT, Cologne (2013); Rehearsal, COSAR HMT, Düsseldorf  DE (2011) and CINEORAMA – Pavilion of Moving Images, Jacobigarten, Düsseldorf  DE (in cooperation with Philipp Fürnkäs) (2011).

Recent group show include Un-Scene III, Wiels, Brussels BE (2015); The Catwalk, Komplot, Brussels BE (2015);  Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig DE (2015); The Unfettered Gaze, Museum Marta, Herford DE (2014); Concept Store, NEST, The Hague NL (2014) ; Fair shape of the whip, Herrman Germann Contemporary, Zurich CH (2014);  Labyr 1, Euroboden Hochbunker, Munich DE (2014); Combinations, LOOP Art Space, Seoul  KR (2013); TRANSFER, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf  DE (2013); Diplomats and Martyrs, Deutsches Haus, London UK (2013);  blowing the whistle, Philara – Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst, Düsseldorf  DE (2013);  Defining Space, Die Bastei, Cologne DE (2013); Geometrie Variable, Les Crayeres, Reims FR (2013); Nam June Paik Award 2012/ Förderpreis 2010, Kunstmuseum Bochum DE (2012) and he / she / it / did / said / would, Tenderpixel, London UK (2012);

Fay Nicolson (b 1984 Derby, UK, lives and works in London) holds an MA from the Royal College of Art, London (2011) and BA from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London (2006). 

Recent solo exhibitions include OVER AND OVER PURE FORM, performance at Kunstraum, London UK (2016); OVER AND OVER PURE FORM, Grand Union, Birmingham, UK (2015); PLAY SENSE, Gerald Moore Gallery, (as part of residency), London, UK (2015) PARE, West Lane South, London; APEL, Almanac Projects, London; WORK WITH MATERIAL, Künstlerhaus Wien AT (all 2013); and Bad Signs, PLAZAPLAZA, London (2012). Recent group shows and projects include A Natural Syntax for Rhythmic Forms and Semiotic Variations, BID Project, Milan, IT (2015); The Place of the Scene, Bloc Projects, Sheffield, UK (2015); Madrugada: Louisa Gagliardi, Fay Nicolson, Tomorrow Gallery, NY, US (2015); Jacopo Miliani, Fay Nicolson, Jackson Sprague, Frutta, Rome, IT (2015); Elapse / End, MAISTERRAVALBUENA, Madrid, ES (2015); As it seems, COSAR HMT, Dusseldorf, DE (2015); Palourde Cuites, Christopher Crescent, Brussels, BE (2015) Mostyn Open 19, Llandudno, UK (2015); Exquisite Collapse, blip blip blip, Leeds, UK (2015); Art Rotterdam with Tenderpixel, NL (2015); The Decorator and the Thief (…), NGCA & Priestman Gallery, Sunderland, UK (2015); Outpost Member Show, Outpost, Norwich, UK; before breakfast we talked about the furthest visible point before it all disappeared, Tenderpixel, London UK (2014); ACCORDION, Laura Bartlett Gallery, London UK (2014); Tokyo in the Fall, Gerald Moore Gallery, London Uk (2014); Open File: A Rehearsal, Outpost Gallery, Norwich UK (2014); Open Cube, White Cube Mason’s Yard, London UK (2013); Lecture Performance, Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen DK (2013); An Artist, Unlearning, David Roberts Art Foundation, London  (2013); Things That Have Interested Me, Waterside Contemporary, London UK (2012); WE ARE THE TIME, Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam NL (2012); Manifesta 8, various venues, Murcia SP (2010-11). In collaboration with artist Oliver Smith A Small Hiccup, Grand Union, Birmingham UK and The Newbridge Project, Newcastle UK (2013); Constitution of the Damned, Landings, Vestfossen NO and The Anti-Library, SPACE, London (both 2011).

Ilona Sagar (b 1985), lives and works in London. She received a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College in 2008 and completed an MFA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 2012. She is currently a TECHNE, AHRC research funded MPhil/Phd by practice candidate at the Royal College of Art in London. In 2018 she won the The Arts and Humanities Research Council Film Award with her project Correspondence O.


Recent projects include Living with Buildings, group exhibition, Wellcome Collection, London, UK (2018/2019); Self Service, publication and event series, CCA Glasgow as part of Glasgow International (2018); Correspondence O, solo exhibition at South London Gallery, London UK (2017/2018), HereAfter: Outcome Project as part of the SPACE HereAfter residency, The White Building, London UK (2017); a solo project at Pump House Gallery, London as part of The Ground We Tread (2016); solo exhibition For Acquiring Lungs and Walking on Dry Land, DKUK, London (2016); solo show with performances Haptic Skins of a Glass Eye Tenderpixel, London UK (2015); solo show with performance Mute Rehearsal, Vitrine Gallery, London UK (2015); Art Rotterdam, Main Section, Rotterdam NL with Tenderpixel (2015); solo show and performances  PROSOPOPOEIA : MANUAL : HAND : BOOK, Assembly Passage Project, London UK (2014); performance I fell backwards and you were there at Hayward Gallery Project Space, London UK (2014); group exhibition What Love has to do with it, Hayward Gallery Project Space, London UK (2014); exhibition and performance Soft Addictions Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh UK (2014); exhibition Eupnea, Saturated Space research cluster, Architecture Association, London UK (2014); screening of Human Factors at Caroll/Fletcher, London UK (2014); performance Human Factors at Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London UK (2014); solo show Human Factors, Tenderpixel, London UK (2014); exhibition The Ballad of Peckham Rye, Bussey Building, London, Peckham UK (2013); performance Human Factors, Art on the Underground as part of Art Licks Weekend, London UK (2013); performance Heart of Darkness, Le Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Nice FR (2012); exhibition The Visionary Trading Project, Guest Projects, London UK (2012); solo exhibition and performance States of Matter, the Swiss Church, London UK (2011); and performance Architectural Playgrounds, Barbican, London UK (2010).