‘The Infinite Lawn’ is the title of a chapter of Italo Calvino’s novel ‘Mr. Palomar’. It describes Palomar’s lawn as a collection of objects, namely grasses.
‘Mr. Palomar’s mind has wandered, he has stopped pulling up weeds. He no longer thinks of the lawn: he thinks of the universe. He is trying to apply to the universe everything he has thought about the lawn. The universe as regular and ordered cosmos or as chaotic proliferation. The universe perhaps finite but countless, unstable within its borders, which discloses other universes within itself. The universe, collection of celestial bodies, nebulas, fine dust, force fields, intersections of fields, collections of collections.’
– Italo Calvino, Mr. Palomar
A creation of archive is understood as an activity which preserves everyday objects in terms of their impermanency. The exhibition, ‘The Infinite Lawn’, is a collection, an anthology operating on the scale of small gestures, marginal notes and things noticed from the corner of the eye, in order to unfold thinking in new ways. If some properties of objects, (basic or uncertain or undefined), are maintained through transformation, grasping that object might mean following the traces of those properties through the metamorphosis, like trying to recollect a narrative from oral tradition. Recent speculative approaches to objects’ studies have explored their qualities in terms of pre- and continuous existence, constant transformation in an infinite chain of connections – taking distance from the idea that all that they are is intelligible to humans. Yet, it is humans producing those very theories. The works outline a chance that such enormous complexity linked to the life of objects is articulated by a ‘distorted and fragmentary nature of our perceptual faculties’*. Perhaps assimilating a whole without comprehending everything that is pertinent to single events (object in becoming) entails some kind of magic that can be only achieved through discontinuous thinking processes, or broken thoughts.Exploring the territory between memory and perception, the exhibition places objects in a renewed perspective, accumulating secret links and plotting various stratagems to laterally affect our comprehension and to leave us simply enchanted in the encounter with the objects.
‘Do not stare directly into the object – it is only properly received if looked at askance’
– Katrina Palmer, Relief (A Remote Object of Thought) In: The Fabricator’s Tale
* Katrina Palmer, Relief (A Remote Object of Thought) In: The Fabricator’s Tale
Adriano Amaral (b. 1982, Ribeirão Preto, Brasil) lives and works in Amsterdam and São Paulo.
Amaralʼs work encompasses an examination of the nature of things – the stuff of the world; its substance, value, materiality and mutability. Blurring the boundaries between object and space, composition and dispersion, painting and sculpture, Amaral creates site-specific installations, responding to the spatial and architectural elements of the exhibition space or gallery.
Adriano Amaral received his MA in Sculpture from The Royal College of Art, London, UK (2012-2014); currently he is an artist in residency at De Ateliers, in Amsterdam (2014-2016). In 2014 received the award of the Kenneth Armitage Young Sculptor Prize. Solo exhibitions include Galeria Transversal, São Paulo (2012); Space in Between, London (2014). A selection of group shows are In Conversation at Hilary Crisp Gallery, London (2013); Open Cube, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, White Cube Gallery, London (2013); Brutalidade Jardim curated by Kiki Mazzucchelli, Gallery Marília Razuk, São Paulo (2013); A Sense of Things, Zabludowicz Collection, London (2014); Postcodes: Kind, Coletor, São Paulo (2014); Flet, SpazioA, Pistoia (2014); Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2015); Múrias Centeno, Porto (2015)
Vanessa Billy (b 1978, Geneva CH) in based in Zurich CH.
She gained her BA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art in 2001.
Bringing together found objects such as rocks, with her own elements made in bronze, concrete, glass, resin, printed stickers or prints on paper, Billy creates conversation pieces. She explores combinations between the familiar and unfamiliar, while also aware that ‘natural’ has become a muddy and obscure term. In response, some of her sculptures appear to have aged naturally over time as if shaped by elemental forces, while others are formed or determined by her own body, and can be as delicate as a tied-up bag of water.
Selected solo presentations include Where Is Wild?, C-o-m-p-o-s-i-t-e, Brussels BE (2015); GRANPALAZZO, Palazzo Rospiglioni, Zagarolo, Rome IT (2015); Stranded, Limoncello, London UK (2015); Permeate, Kunsthalle Marcel Duchamp, Cully CH (2014); Sustain, sustain, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh UK (2014); Clean Cold Fire, BolteLang, Zurich CH (2013); Empty the Earth to fill the Sky, Piano Nobile, Geneva CH (2013); Looking for the pool, Unosolo, Milan IT (2011); Not Taught, BolteLang, Zurich CH (2011); Three times a day, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel CH (2011); Natural means something like vegetables, Christina Wilson, Copenhagen DK (2011); Who Shapes What, Limoncello, London UK (2010); Surfaces for the Mind to Rest or Sink Into, as part of The Photographic Object, The Photographer’s Gallery Project Space, London, UK (2009). Selected group exhibitions from recent years Môtiers 2015 – Art en plein air, Môtiers CH (2015); Engagements, Musée Sainte-Croix, Poitiers FR (2015); Le Gestes des Materiaux, Centre d’Art Bastille, Grenoble FR (2014); Swiss Art Awards, Basel CH (2014); Stadtbiotop, BolteLang CH (2014); Sculpture Triennale, Bex & Arts, Parc de Szilassy, Bex CH (2014); STONE, Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sunderland UK (2014); Thinking Things, Café Gallery, London UK (2014); La Jeunesse est un Art – Jübilaum Manor Kunstpreise, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau CH (2012); Utopraxia, The Art Foundation, Athens GR (2012); We love you, Limoncello, London UK (2012); Sun Neither Rise Nor Set, Royal College of Art, London UK (2010) and Double Object, Thomas Dane, London UK (2009).
Petra Feriancová (b 1977 Bratislava, Slovakia) lives and works in Bratislava, SK and Milan, IT. She was accepted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, SK, which she left for the Accademia delle Belle Arti, Roma, IT, graduating in 2003. She holds a PhD since 2016 from the Department of Intermedia and Multimedia at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, SK.
In 2013, she represented Slovakia and the Czech Republic at the 55th Biennial of Venice with the project titled An Order of Things. In 2011 she was a resident at ISCP, New York, US, and in 2010, she was awarded the Oskar Cepan Prize for young visual artists organised by the FCS Foundation for a Civil Society.
Selected solo exhibitions include personale, Gilda Lavia, Rome, IT (2018); Artissima, duo presentation with Pamela Diamante, Gilda Lavia Gallery, Turin, IT; Klaviatura, Viltin Gallery, Budapest, HU; I Am Losing My Beauty Together With My Interest in Beautiful Things, Baril, Cluj, RO; Becoming Animal, Tenderpixel, London, UK; Systems, Individuals and Measuring Tools, Bòlit Centre d’Art Contemporani, Girona, SP; Survivals, Relics, Souvenirs, Apoteka, Dignano, Croatia, HR; An Exhibition on Doubt, MAN_Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro, IT; Politics of Life, (from the Archive of Kveta Fulierová), amt _ project, Bratislava, SK (all 2016); ArtVerona, Verona, IT; Vulnerable, Yet Everlasting, Viltin Gallery, OFF-Biennale Budapest, HU (2015); Things that Happen, and Things that are Done. On Beginnings and Matter, Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples, IT (2014); Every Day has a Noon, amt_project, Bratislava, SK (2014); Birds, Myths and Tusks, Frieze Frame Section, London, UK (2013); Still the Same Place, An Order of Things (with Zbyněk Baladrán), Czech and Slovak Pavilion, Venice Biennale, IT (2013); ARCO, Madrid, SP (2013); A Study of the Secondary Plan, Dumb, The House Of Arts, Brno, CZ (2012); A Report on the Time Spending, Jiri Svestka, Berlin, DE (2012); Postsriptum to Childe Harold’s Pilgrimge, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, SK (2011) and Theory of a City or the Possibilities of an A4, ISCP, New York, US (2011).
Selected group exhibitions from recent years include Sonda, Tendencies in Conceptual and Post Conceptual Art in SK and CZ, GHMP, Prague City Gallery, CZ (2018/2019); Useful Photography. Photography in Contemporary Slovak Art, Slovak National Gallery, Bralistalva, SK (2018/2019); I Am the Mouth. Works from Central and Eastern European Artists from Art Collection Telekom, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb, HR (2018); Utopian Display: Props and Tools, FM Centro per l’arte contemporanea, Milano, IT; Pompei @ Madre, Materia archeologica, MADRE, Naples, IT; Revolving Truth, Symposium, Królikarnia / National Museum in Warsaw, PL; Temporary Encounters, Galerija Galzenica, Galerija Apoteka, Galežnici, Velika Gorica Zagreb, HR; PÓŁPRAWDA | HALF–TRUTH, Królikarnia / National Museum in Warsaw, PL; Mushrooms on the Ruins, Nogueras Blanchard, Madrid, ES; Július Koller Symposium, MUMOK, Vienna AT; Pyeong Chang Biennale. The Five Moons: Return of the Nameless and Unknown, KR (all 2017); Playgrounds, Garage Museum, Moscow, RU; Sitting Together, Tranzit.sk, Bratislava, SK (curated by Zsuzsa László); Coated in Pre-Existence, Elisabeth Xi Bauer, The Cob Gallery, London, UK; Cities and (Velo) Cities, De Markten, Brussels, BE; Miart, amt _ project and On Directing Air, amt _ project, Milano, IT (all 2016).
Falke Pisano (b 1978 Amsterdam NL) lives and works in Berlin DE.
She attended the Art Academy of Utrecht NL and the postgraduate program at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht NL. In 2013, she was the recipient of the Prix de Rome.
Her practice is based on the use of diagrammatic strategies and the exposure of a kind of loop, in which shifting abstract sculptural forms are conceived directly in relation to written and spoken language, implying an on-going and morphing production of meaning.
A selection of recent solo exhibitions includes The value in mathematics, REDCAT, Los Angeles US (2015); Rehearsal I: Parts That Do Not Go Together and Rehearsal II: Heart Head Hold-up, PRAXES, Berlin DE (2014); The Body in Crisis; The Showroom, London UK (2013); Composition of The Voice, Mendes Wood, Sao Paulo (2013); Disordered Bodies Fractured Minds, Hollybush Gardens, London UK (2012); The Body in Crisis, De Vleeshal, Middelburg NL (2012); The Body in Crisis (Distance, Repetition and Representation), Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam NL (2011) and Desert Solitaire, Benoît Maire & Falke Pisano, The Reading Room at CAC, Vilnius LT (2011); (conditions of agency), Extra City, Antwerpen BE (2010). Her recent group exhibition among many others include House, Hollybush Gardens, London UK (2014); Mammouth Treignac Projet, Treignac FR (2014); Per/Form. How to do things with[out] words, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid ES (2014); This Page Intentionally Left Blank, Akbank Art Center, Istanbul TR (2014); 13th Istanbul Biennial TR (2013); A House of Leaves. Third Movement, David Roberts Art Foundation, London UK (2012); Trabajo, Poder Y Control, MACBA, Barcelona ES (2012); 9th Shanghai Biennale CN (2012); The Body in Crisis (Housing, Treating and Depicting) performance at Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid ES (2012); Beyond Imagination, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam NL (2012); For the Blind Man in the Dark Room Looking For the Black Cat That Isn’t There, ICA London UK / Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Louis, US / De Appel, Amsterdam NL (2010); Modernologies, Muzeum Sztuki, Warsaw, PL (2010); Rehabilitation, WIELS, Brussels, BE (2010); Making Worlds, Venice Biennale IT (2009) and Manifesta 7, Rovereto, Manufactura Tabacchi, IT (2008).
Yann Sérandour (b 1974 Vannes FR) lives and works in Rennes FR.
His practice often refers to conceptual art from the sixties and seventies, periods of particular interest to him because of their copious diffusion in the form of publications and prints. In his recent work, he moves attention to other fields and times, such as archival photos of collective fascination with cacti, which together with a collection of gardening guides and bibliographies offer a public image to the passions and practices of these hobbyists, from which the story of devotion can be told.
His recent solo exhibitions include A Figure Four Trap, Luis Adelantado, Valencia SP (2015); Cactus Cuttings, gb agency, Paris FR (2014); Yann Sérandour, Present Future, gb agency, Artissima 18, Turin IT (2011); Un temps nuageux avec la possibilité d’un rayon de soleil, gb agency, Paris FR (2011); Inside the White Cube, Module, Palais de Tokyo, Paris FR (2008). Among many others his recent group exhibitions include Individual Stories. Collecting as Portrait and Methodology, Kunsthalle Vienna AT (2015); Red Swan Hotel, MACRO, Rome IT (2015); Air de Jeu, Le Nouveau Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris FR (2015); El Hotel Eléctrico, MUHKA, Antwerpen BE (2014). We get lighter and lighter, épisode 1, Cneai, Chatou FR (2014); Hotel Abisso, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva CH (2013); It Also Says Imperceptibly, Dolores, Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam NL (2013); L’Origine des choses, Centre d’art Contemporain de la Ville de Bruxelles BE (2013); An exhibition to Hear Read, ICA Philadelphia US (2012); Les prairies, Les ateliers, Biennale d’Art Contemporain, Rennes FR (2012); Yann Sérandour & Omer Fast, Frieze Focus, New York US, with gb agency (2012); Incidents of Mirror Travels in Yucatan and other Places, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico MX (2011); Studies for an Exhibition, David Roberts Art Foundation, London UK (2011); The Way Beyond Art: Wide White Space, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco US (2011); Book Show, Eastside Projects, Birmingham UK (2010); Chefs-d’œuvre?, Centre Pompidou-Metz FR (2010); Double Bind / Arrêtez d’essayer de me comprendre!, Villa Arson, Nice FR (2010) and Seconde Main, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris FR (2010).
Ian Whittlesea (b 1967 Isleworth, UK) lives and works in London.
He receives a BA (Hons) degree in painting from the Chelsea College of Art, London UK in 1990, and obtained his MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London Uk in 1992.
His work is concerned with words, and with the ability of text to transform the physical and psychic state of the viewer. It assumes many forms, from painstaking text paintings to printed books, ephemeral posters and transient projections, and explores the relationships between language, illustration and diagram both on the page and in the world.
A selection of recent solo projects includes Breath is Life, Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool UK (2015); Attaining Cosmic Consciousness, Tenderbooks, London UK (2014); A Breathing Bulb, Marlborough Contemporary, London UK (2014); Becoming Invisible, book launch with The Everyday Press, Marcus Campbell Art Books, London UK (2014); Seven Clouds Forming, Favourbrook, London UK (2014); Becoming Invisible, Marlborough Contemporary, London UK (2013) Mazdaznan Health & Breath Culture, Barbican Centre, London UK (2012); Foundations of Judo, The Narrows, Melbourne AU (2010). Recent group exhibitions among others include Resource , The Bluecoat, Liverpool UK (2015); Drawing Biennial, Drawing Room, London UK (2015); Everything is About to Happen, Artists Space, New York US (2014) Everything is About to Happen, Greengrassi / Corvi-Mora, London UK (2014); INFRA, Westminster Reference Library, London UK (2014); The Art Brussels Colouring Book, Art Brussels BE (2014); More than I Dare to Think About, Marlborough Contemporary, London (2013); Collective Diary, Space Mass, Hal Project, Seoul KR (2013); and An Exchange with Sol LeWitt, MASS – MoCA / Cabinet, New York US (2011). Most important publications include INFRA (Playing Cards), Vision Forum, London UK (2014) Becoming Invisible, The Everyday Press, London UK (2014); Mazdaznan Health & Breath Culture, Open Editions & Stanley Picker Gallery, London UK (2012) and The Foundations of Judo, Yves Klein, Published by Everyday Press, London UK (2009).
We are grateful for the support of: