SECRET SOCIETIES - SHIRN KUNSTHALLE - FRANKFURT, GERMANY - 2011

SECRET SOCIETIES - SHIRN KUNSTHALLE - FRANKFURT, GERMANY - 2011

Secret Societies. TO KNOW, TO DARE, TO WILL, TO KEEP SILENCE
23. June - 25. September 2011

Man has always been fascinated with secret societies and their clandestine rites, their covert knowledge, and exclusive circle of members. The character of secret societies ranges from harmless brotherhoods to powerful associations with very special financial and political objectives. Particularly in times of crises, secret societies provide surrogate values for the prevailing political, social and technological systems of order.

The exhibition is aimed at answering the question in how far secret societies also reflect certain mechanisms of contemporary art. Drawing on a combination of works of art and historical documents such as books, weapons, and Scotland Yard files, the exhibition pursues the nature of the secret along a labyrinthine course and discloses a range of bizarre and wondrous discoveries. The show’s circle of members includes such presumed artists as Enrico David, Gretchen Faust, Jenny Holzer, Joachim Koester, Terence Koh, Elad Lassry, Fabian Marti, Goldin+Senneby, Markus Schinwald, Ulla von Brandenburg, Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Michael Esposito, Cerith Wyn Evans, and Lisa Yuskavage. A certain degree of darkening will be inevitable, because the knowledge of secret societies has to remain obscure if it is to survive.
Curators: Cristina Ricupero and Alexis Vaillant, Paris
Project Management: Matthias Ulrich, SCHIRN

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Publications

Secret Societies

Secret societies—a somewhat intriguing theme in art context. The publication helps to implement the theme and presents correlations.

29,80 €

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List of works Exhibited 

Font

2010

Ceramic, copper, wood, fabric, wire, wood, acrylic, wood stain and metal fixings

122cm 31cm x 31cm

Allegorical Reflections Part I

2010

Wood, vinyl, enamel and wood stain

88.5cm x 60.5cm x 3.2cm

Phantasmagoria

2011

Enamel, etched primer, spray paint, wood, glass and metal fixings

58cm x 42cm

External Compass

2010

Burn wood, varnish, metal fixing 

32.5cm x 42.5cm x 2.5cm

Allegorical Reflections Part II
2010
Wood, vinyl, enamel and wood stain
88.5cm x 60.5cm x 3.2cm

'FRIENDSHIP OF THE PEOPLES' - Simon Oldfield Gallery - London - 2011

'FRIENDSHIP OF THE PEOPLES' - Simon Oldfield Gallery - London - 2011

Curated by Tim Ellis and Simon Oldfield

EXHIBITION INFORMATION

Friendship of the Peoples

Friendship of the Peoples unites a group of 40 artists through a framework that is structured around the concept of “community” – a word derived from the Latin communitas; a broad term for fellowship or organized society. 

The show explores the very human and primeval desire to belong to something greater than one’s self.   Traditionally a "community" has been defined as a group of interacting people organized around shared common values and interests.  A longing to belong manifests itself on a local level within physical communities, which grow and develop to become more established.  Communities are amorphous; sometimes getting stronger, sometimes becoming lost – but what remains constant is the individual’s desire to assert their identity.

The concept of building a community is at the core of the show and is reflected in the process of selecting each artist as well as what each artist will be asked to submit.   The curatorial approach creates a foundation group of 20 artists to form the basis of the community, who then each propose one other artist to participate in the exhibition; expanding the community.  
Crucially, there will be no overt or deliberate shared intent or theme, other than the objective to create a community.  The core unifying factor is that all artists will be required to submit work that conforms to the idea of a poster which follows these specific requirements:

·         Material: paper

·         Size: A1

The poster was chosen because of its role as an effective tool of communication and because of its undiscriminating nature of its content. The origins of the poster date back to the late 19^th century when the printing industry perfected colour lithograph.  This advancement allowed information to be uniformly mass-produced.  As a consequence, standards and particular restrictions were imposed, such as shape and size, creating a standardized format for communication.

Friendship of the Peoples proposes a greater shared function beyond that of the individual.  The nature of the chain coupled with the ethos behind the poster allows for a transparent manufactured community.  Consequently, the collective works will function as a group that sits somewhere between a communicative role and the symbolic; allowing an engagement with notions of the individual existing within a community.

To Live Beyond Ones Usefulness

Acrylic and Varnish on A1 paper

2011 

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ISBN 978-0-9568329-2-4

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition - London - 2011

Invited Artist

ISBN 978-1-907533-22-8

'SONS OF PIONEERS' - FURINI CONTEMPORARY - ROME, ITLAY - 2011 - Solo Exhibition

Tim Ellis - Sons of Pioneers

Tim Ellis, United in Different Guises - Midday on the Mount, 2011

Wondering about the unexpressed possibilities of the artefact, altering the purpose to which it was originally put with the intention of reassessing its value and function, bringing out the process that leads a found object to take on a different cultural value.
Tim Ellis’s practice is based on the juxtaposition of culturally different materials and objects and probes both their formal value and their original purpose, obliging the viewer to raise questions about notions of functionality, authorship and display. Through mental relations and the imperceptible alteration of forms, the young English artist declares a sort of relative commitment to the concept of artefact and that of artifice, to the principle of creativity and seriality.

The title of the exhibition refers to the idea of being threatened by the weight of history, while it is laid out as if it were a proposal for the beginning of a new ideology. Both sculpture and painting - models, trophies and testimonies to something bigger - focus their tension on that juncture in perennial balance between the fact and the historical object, between its manufacture and its distribution, suggesting reflections on the role of artifice within the process of production of meaning.

On this occasion the paintings use exactly the same emblem, a sort of iconic monument or totemic construction whose colour varies with the season and the time of day, and in this way opposes the inevitable ravages of time. These works continue the series of progressively numbered paintings grouped under the title United in Different Guises. Proposing as they do a dual function, with a role of representation as well as communication, at the root of their imagery lies an intentional fusion of signs and design, a visual strategy that is then recomposed and codified under a more generically symbolic appearance. Through technical devices such as the bending of the support, the scratching and the progressive and gradual aging of the surface and the colour, the painting itself is transformed into a succession of functional propositions. What is offered to the gaze is in the end an object that brings into question the notions of symbolism and authenticity, allowing the final image to go beyond the confines of painting itself.

Bio: Tim Ellis (Chester, 1981, lives and works in London) studied at Liverpool John Moores 2000-2003 and the Royal Academy Schools 2006-2009. His Solo and Group shows include ‘The Tourist’ 2011 (Solo) Spacex, Exeter, England, ‘A Foundation for Exchange’ Primopiano Lugano Switzerland 2010 (Solo). ‘The John Moores Painting Prize 26’ The Walker Art Gallery Liverpool 2010, ‘Newspeak - British Art Now Part I.’ Saatchi Gallery London 2010. ‘Tag 3 to 36 New London Painting’ Brown Gallery London 2010. ‘New Sensations’ The A foundation London 2009. ‘Alexandre Pollazzon Presents’ Alexandre Pollazzon London 2008, ‘Falling from an Apple Tree’ Wilde Gallery Berlin 2008. ‘Premiums’ The Royal Academy London 2008. ‘The Last Gang in Town’ Arena Gallery Liverpool 2006. Forthcoming exhibitions include ‘Secret Societies’ Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany.


Tim Ellis | Sons of Pioneers
May 4 – July 16, 2011
Opening: May 4, 6:30pm
Furini Arte Contemporanea, Via Giulia 8, Roma
Open days: Wensday-Friday 1-7 pm, Saturday 3-7 pm
Info: +39 06 68307443, info@furiniartecontemporanea.it
Website: http://www.furiniartecontemporanea.it/

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Installation Views

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Associated Information



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Links

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