Kanal Europe 1992
Click to enlarge…
MARKUS HANSEN : PLENTY
At Camden Arts Centre
22 May to 5 July 1992
In reworking Plenty for this new space, Markus Hansen has added to his original installation, while retaining its essential qualities of material and light. Three houses on towers grow out of the parquet floor, capturing light from the windows. Their solidity is dispelled when, through the skin of gauze, two symmetrically placed objects become visible.
These long, fragile instruments of enquiry reflect the viewer, as do the accompanying dust drawings on glass hung about the room. Plenty was originally made for Germany, where the connotations of hygiene – not only physical, but moral, spiritual and intellectual hygiene – may seem more obvious, but the implications of devising such systems in order to protect one’s world have universal resonances.
Click to enlarge…
MAUD SULTER : HYSTERIA
The Arts Centre, Vane Terrace, Darlington
10 June – 25 July 1991
Maud Sulter “Hysteria”
Born in Glasgow, in 1960, Maud Sulter is a black artist of Ghaniain extraction, who declares she is making art in the African tradition.”Hysteria” is an installation employing large scale photograph portraits – a form she used previously in Zabat with marble plates, a narrative script, and a compact disk audio recording.
Hysteria is the name of the black woman sculptor whose journey from 19th century America to Europe is represented in a series of scenarios which combine myth and reality in different times and cultures. It is the story of a search for fame and fortune with the resulting irony that once Hysteria has gained what she seeks, she disappears.
Sulter’s portraits have a straightforward quality which, she says, “creates a certain discomfort within conventional gallery spaces and the functionality of my work”. This installation provides another arena for her exploration of the black artist’s contribution to world culture and history.