Sovay Berriman, Ilana Halperin, Iz Oztat, Lindsay Seers, and Michelle Williams Gamaker: The World Made New
Michelle Williams Gemaker, 2017, Violet culbo, stowaway. Performed by Ananya Jaidew, make-up Helena Jopling
Pi Artworks London is pleased to announce The World Made New curated by Oliver Sumner. The World Made New is the fourth of five exhibitions that make up Pi Artworks London’s Curatorial Season that runs from October 2016 – July 2017. For the season Övül Ö. Durmusoglu, Alexandra Schwartz, Sacha Craddock, Oliver Sumner, and Morgan Quaintance have been invited to devise and develop their own curatorial project working with artists predominantly or entirely fromoutside the gallery’s roster.
The World Made New draws resonances in the work of five international artists (based in London, Glasgow, Cornwall, and Istanbul), through personal myths of history and landscape. Often departing from superficial reality, the diverse narrative practices of Sovay Berriman, Ilana Halperin, Iz Öztat, Lindsay Seers, and Michelle Williams Gamaker find another kind of truth in relation to land and time. Self-referential approaches blend autobiographical details with personal mythologies of birth, transfiguration, and constructed identity. Islands, markers, and symbols are recurring motifs, recalling land artist Robert Smithson’s visionary take on the post-industrial environment of 1960s New Jersey. Ritual and performativity emerge as points of connection. The viewer is taken on a journey through the natural environment and human society; fraught with disorienting coincidences, displacement, rupture, and imaginative leaps.
The title of the exhibition alludes in part to a reconception of the world as seen with each artist’sparticular vision. But it may equally suggest the framing of consciousness itself, being as much about an imagined inner world transposed upon the world as they find it today.
About Sovay Berriman
Sovay Berriman, b. 1972 Major exhibitions include Oculist Witnesses: According to Duchamp, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston (2015); (small) Gems, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney, Australia (2014); Where Molluscs Huddle and Wizards Roar (solo), The Agency, London, UK (2014); Symbol Archive: Visual Language (solo), Spacex Gallery, Exeter, UK (2013); Sepulchre by the Sea (solo), Malgras|Naudet, Manchester, UK (2013); Art Gwangju, South Korea (2012); Representing Nothing, The Agency, London, UK (2012); The Potential for Windows and Scale, Contemporary Art Society, London, UK (2012); Rising Cities Float (solo), The Agency, London, UK (2011); This Matter, Royal Standard, Liverpool, UK (2010); Entertaining at the Dust Lounge (solo), Phoenix Gallery, Exeter, UK (2010).
About Ilana Halperin
Ilana Halperin, b.1973 Major exhibitions include Geologic Intimacy (Yu no Hana) (solo), Fujiya Gallery Hanayamomo, Beppu, Japan and Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen (2017); Between Tides and Poles, New Acquisitions from the University of Edinburgh Art Collection, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, UK (2017); The Library (solo), National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK (2013); Steine (solo), Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum der Charité, Berlin, Germany (2012); Hand Held Lava (solo), Schering Stiftung, Berlin, Germany (2012); Physical Geology (slow time) (solo), Artists Space, New York, USA (2009); Experimental Geography, ICI, New York, USA (2009); Sharjah Biennial 8, UAE (2007); The Difficulty of Falling in Love During an Earthquake (solo), Tramway, Glasgow, UK (2001).
About İz Öztat
İz Öztat, b. 1981 Major exhibitions include Tamawuj, Sharjah Biennial 13, UAE (2017); Land without Land, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberger, Germany (2016); Saltwater: A Theory of Thought Forms, 14th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey (2015); Conducted in depth and projected at length (solo), Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, Germany (2014); Rendez-vous 13, Institut d’art Contemporain, Lyon, France (2013); Here Together Now, Matadero, Madrid, Spain (2013); İz (solo), Maçka Sanat Gallery, İstanbul, Turkey (2012); Underconstruction, Apartment Project, Berlin, Germany (2012).
About Lindsay Seers
Lindsay Seers b. 1966 Major exhibitions include Seeing Round Corners, Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK (2016); Nowhere Less Now (solo), Glynn Vivian Gallery, Wales (2016); Objects Do Things, Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland (2016); Leisure Land Golf, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2015); Mirrorcity, Hayward Gallery Southbank Centre, London, UK (2014); Top of the World, Sami Centre for Contemporary Art, Karasjok, Norway (2014); Entangled² (Theatre II) (solo), Matt's Gallery, London, UK (2013); Nowhere Less Now² (Red Queen), MONA, Tasmania, Australia (2013); A Trip to the Moon, Bonniers Konsthall, Sweden (2012); Reality Bites, Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland (2012); Monodrome, Athens Biennale, Athens, Greece (2011); It has to be this way² (solo), National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark (2010); Steps into the arcane, Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Warth, Switzerland (2010); Swallowing Black Maria, Smart Project Space (2007); Cinemart, The Auditorium, Rome, Italy (2007). Collections include, Tate Collection, London, UK; Arts Council Collection, London, UK; Artangel Collection, London, UK; The Collection of MONA, Tasmania, Australia.
About Michelle Williams Gamaker
Michelle Williams Gamaker, b. 1979 Major exhibitions and screenings include Wayfaring, &Model, Leeds, UK (2016); Head-On (solo), Punt WG, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2013), Precarity (with Mieke Bal), The Importance of Being a (Moving) Image, The National Gallery, Prague, the Czech Republic (2015); Madame B. Explorations in Emotional Capitalism, Museum Sztuki, Łódź, Poland (2013); Saying It, Freud Museum, London, UK (2012); Madness as Insight, City Library, Turku, Finland (2012) Tony Zielgler: The Alienation of Objects, Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK (2010); Mère Folle, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain (2010);The Switch Live Art Performance: Dreaming Confusion (solo), Camden Arts Centre, London, UK (2007); Lady into Fox (solo), de Ateliers, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2004). Collections include Zabludowicz Collection, London, England; The New Contemporaries Archive, London, UK; V Tape Archive, Toronto, Canada.
About Oliver Summner
Oliver Sumner b.1972 Oliver Sumner is an independent curator and arts participation specialist with a background in public galleries in the UK. He has previously held senior programming roles at Camden Arts Centre, London, and Aspex Gallery and has recently worked for Hayward Touring coordinating a programme of engagement and artists’ projects for British Art Show 8. Previous exhibitions include One Thing Against Another, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth (2008); Nils Norman, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth (2008); Nicole Wermers, Camden Arts Centre, London (2005); Touring London, Iniva, London (2001)
