Consequence

Artists Philip Hausmeier, Corin Hewitt, Hans Schabus, Frank Selby, Sara VanDerBeek, Brian Wills

05.Jul.07 - 18.Aug.07
Thu-Sun 11-6

Museum 52
52 Redchurch St
London E2 7DP
020 7366 5571
info@museum52.com
www.museum52.com
Tube Liverpool Street, Old Street, Aldgate East, Shoreditch / Hoxton

Preview 5 July 2007
5 July – 19 August 2007
Wednesday - Saturday 11am - 6pm

"Perhaps a nice succinct definition of entropy would be Humpty Dumpty. Like Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, all the kings’ horses and all the kings’ men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. There is a tendency to treat closed systems in such a way... You have a closed system, which eventually deteriorates and starts to break apart and there's no way that you can really piece it back together again. Another example might be the shattering of Marcel Duchamp’s Glass, and his attempt to put all the pieces back together again attempting to overcome entropy". (Robert Smithson)

Consequence will examine the continuing and unavoidable fascination with entropy. The show will not explore it through the specific modes of Smithson's work, but will instead examine it in a far more multifarious manner. The exhibition will approach the idea of a fall into disorder or decay and the acceptance or resistance to that.

Philip Hausmeier is concerned with the human figure and corporeal experience. For the exhibition he has produced two collages illustrating broken down ever-decreasing fragmented human heads. In the rear space he has created an arch of broken mirrors. Pieced back together with black silicon the mirror shards are both threatening and beguiling.

Hausmeier invites the viewer to pass through the arch as a physical acknowledgement of the reconfiguration of these broken elements. It also provides visual fragmentation of our bodies, akin to that of the collages.

Corin Hewitt's sculpture for the show presents us with a cast of a casting mold. The mold is bedraggled and redundant. It is similar to a ready made, yet, in what could be a subversive act, it has a moustache (made from the artists own hair). This mold of a mold becomes the beginning of what could easily be a multiple repetition (of a mold
of a mold of a mold), thus representative of a system, the sculpture comically exemplifies the mutation of order.

Hans Schabus is known for his highly involved installations. For the exhibit he will produce a 150 x 5 cm candle that will burn for the duration of the exhibition, documented at the beginning and end of its burning time. The piece is an
almost literal translation of thermodynamic theory. It is also extremely fragile. Schabus has only used melted wax to attach it to the floor; it burns precariously emphasizing the possible pitfalls of the task and also the potential for chaos. Sara VanDerBeek constructs sculptural collages that incorporate carefully selected images. These sculptures are then photographed and the structures disposed of. The selection and re-photographing of the images gives them a new sense of order and existence. This is emphasized by VanDerBeek's significant attention to, and control of form. These new orders are subject to the same aspects of distortion and decay as any photograph. This particular series examines the fracture or cracking of the contemporary human condition, suggesting that the current sociopolitical environment is illustrative of a crumbling society. VanDerBeek brings this to light through precisely chosen historically poignant imagery.

For the exhibition Frank Selby has produced two multi-paneled drawings depicting a dead bee. The first depicts multiple images of a bee. The top left panel is dark and rich. The second panel is drawn using the first as reference and is slightly lighter. This deteriorates to the ninth, which is almost merely a shadow of the first. The other drawing is a single image of the bee broken up into panels. Each panel is drawn separately such that they do not quite line up and there are tonal differences. Selby is concerned with the loss of the subject in the creation of the drawings. He believes the poignancy of the moment is lost in its separation from the present and in the process of its removal from reality to verisimilitude.

Though a very different aesthetic, Brian Wills' panel pieces explore a similar transfer in the process of reproduction.
Wills created the panel with notable care and consideration, which is apparent in its almost melodic composition. The second piece is then made in response to the first. Wills applies instinct and observation to create a self-perpetuating contained system. As the pieces are in response rather than an attempt at reproduction there are combinations and compositions that will not be used again in the same formation. The system could therefore be seen as deteriorating, until eventually there is no ‘energy’ left.

Despite the extreme variances in method, each work, or body of work, is rooted in the notion that if you begin something there will be a consequence from that action. The show explores how the artists examine, react to, and illustrate the potential of this consequence.