paulmaheke - Thankyouforcoming
Transcription
paulmaheke - Thankyouforcoming
M A H E K E ◗ PA U L ◗ ◗ ● A good part of my work is based on simple gestures that once consisted in placing works, which might not even be noticed, in public spaces. It has now expanded to video, installation and sculptural works. The practice itself is grounded in decolonial and emancipatory thought with a focus on cultural identity and new subjectivities. My current research imagines the body as an archive, a territory with its cartography and its colonised zones; a utopia to be reimagined via different strategies of resistance. With particular attention to dance, I propose to defuse the power structures that shape Western imaginations and to rearticulate the representations that emerge from them. At the intersection of feminisms and critical cartography, this exploration is a way to question social and geographical relationships to places as they relate to a more personal inquiry that mainly deals with exoticism and more widely to Othering processes. My pieces are to be experienced as poetic yet political spaces looking at the body and the landscape as resilient points. s w ay i n g Identities I Lost Track of the Swarm, 2016 South London Gallery, London (UK) The show I Lost Track of the Swarm looks at pulsating and desiring brown and black bodies as affective and political archives. In shedding a (lavender) ray of light on empowered narratives, it strives to unfold the intricate layers of the production of subjectivity. 2 I Lost Track of the Swarm (TRANSFORMATION), 2016 soundtrack 23:00 min (loop) composed in collaboration with Nkisi (NON Worldwide). I Lost Track of the Swarm, 2016 South London Gallery, London (UK) 3-channel video installation (endless loop), luminous ceiling, fake rubber cockroaches, synthetic hairs, grass and seeds, digital print on fabric, curtains, window light filters. 3 Mutual Survival, Lorde's Manifesto, 2015 diptyque, vidéo HD, 17:50 min While Looking at dance as a practice of resistance, the video —meant to be displayed on two screens— narrates Black subjectivities through a fictional manifesto made out of several texts by feminist author Audre Lorde. 4 Tropicalité, l'Île et l'Exote, 2014 HD video, 12:50 min Tropicalité, l'île et l'exote is a silent subtitled video raising questions relating to Otherness through concepts such as empowerment, exoticism and individual subjectivities. The film ties together the symbolic figure of the island and the body, as well as it aligns with decolonial thoughts which look at both as typical spaces to be colonized yet as possible sites for resistance. 5 Beyond Beyoncé: Use it Like a Bumper, 2015 documentation of the event A public conversation held at Open School East using Hip-Hop as a keystone to question what possibilities are offered to Black female bodies in the mainstream as well as in more alternative cultures. 6 Il faut d’abord décrire ce regard qui part du bas pour aller vers le haut et rebondit sur tous les reflets qui rejaillissent et se diffractent sur le métal des poles. Un regard qui s’arrêtera sur tout le lustre, celui du corps huilé qui ondule, celui des podiums éclairant de rose et de rouge le cuir synthétique des banquettes qui décrivent un poste d’observation. Ille s’enroule autour du métal. Dans tous ses mouvements ille garde contact avec l’axe métallique. Répétée et étirée par les miroirs du plafond, cette lance argentée s’enfonce sous la plateforme lumineuse sur laquelle ille se tient. Ille tourne encore quand rien ne bouge autour, à 360°, solidaire de sa pole elle-même solidaire du sol et du plafond, connecté.e par le haut et le bas. Ille se dédouble à l’infini dans cet endroit où les cloisons donnent l’impression de ne pas en être. Le pornoscope pourrait être cette architecture faite de lustre et de reflets, d’éclats et de brillances. Une architecture conçue pour s’assurer que l’œil sera repu, rassasié des effets de lumière et de la vibration des surfaces lisses et luisantes agitées sous le poids de ce corps qui danse. L’espace-réceptacle du désir où le confinement se frotte à la vastitude, à l’expansion, au multiple. Pourtant tout y est à portée de vue. Parce qu’il s’agit bien de tout y voir, d’embrasser la vastitude en un regard, du bas vers le haut, en suivant l’axe ou l’un de ses doubles, toujours aussi statiques alors que le pornoscope se déploie tout autour de nous. Knowing Less About Our Own Situation, 2013 documentation of an action, in collaboration with Maxime Bichon A participative walk through Paris (France) devised as an attempt to question racial and gender issues in public spaces. 7 Les Étendards, Swaying Bodies 2013 printed fabric and wood, 90 x 125 cm Eight flags set up in Montreal's (QC) streets, with words written on them that refer to the action itself in both official languages of the city, French and English. 8 The Shelter Skit, 2013 billboard poster 200 x 300 cm A picture of a train shelter displayed clandestinely on a public billboard. The printed text describe a small scene wherein ten teenagers, nine boys and a girl, wait for the train to come, with each embodying masculinity in a different way. 9 Crocus/Manhood, 2013 vinyl poster, 77 x 129 cm A public square in Paris where only men congregate. There, I displayed a vinyl poster on the billboard of public restrooms in the center of the square. It presents an excerpt of Jeffrey Eugenides' book "Middlesex," in which the main character, Calliope, describes her/his genitals and thereby her/his intersex conditions. 10 While Appealing The Sun (Dervish and Van der Rohe), 2012 documentation of an action. 11 While Appealing The Sun (by the country-side), 2011 documentation of an action. 12 Unveiling The Ghost, 2014 billboard poster, monitor, flags, glass, wood, glitter gel Documentation of several actions held furtively in public spaces exhibited at the 59th Salon de Montrouge. 13 Proposal To Form A Group Of Domestic Poets, 2014 broomsticks, printed flags, printed text. A series of printed flag cloths has been given to local shop owners around the art center few days before the opening. I requested them to give a flag cloth to each customer who would buy a broomstick; with the possibility for the customers —whenever and wherever they want— to turn their broomstick into a flag. 14 B a r e ly n ot ic e d A Mirror For Public Restrooms, 2013 frosted mirror 45 x 30 cm (Daniel Bosser's private collection) I set up a mirror in the public restrooms of a small French town. A part of the mirror has been frosted to draw a ghostly silhouette. 16 While Appealing The Sun (blue dots), 2012 glitter and glue on wood I coated tree stumps with a blue glitter gel along a jogging trail by Barcelona's heights. 17 Paintings For A Stranger, 2012 acrylic on canvas 12, 7 x 17,7 cm On a Sunday afternoon I left a series of eight monochrome paintings at a business's parking lot. I set them under the name tags of specific drivers, so that by the next morning, on their way to work, B. De Serres, G. Lapointe and F. Massie would find the present that I offered to them. 18 Iridescent Reflectors, 2011 tempera and iridescent pigment on canvas board, 10 x 15 cm I left twelve little monochrome paintings with metallic reflectors in the paint in a neighborhood of Montreal, Canada. They were placed so that their surfaces would catch the sunlight at sunset. 19 While Appealing The Sun (bench), 2011 glitter gel on concrete I coated a public bench in front of the Atlantic ocean with glitters. It shimmers at sunset. 20 Of Mounts and Seas, 2013 plastic signal plates, 9 x 25 cm Several signal plates are hung on the protection fencing around the railway station Gare du Nord in Paris. The sentences written on them recall the snapshots that I took during various journeys abroad. The title of the piece is a translation from the Chinese of a concept of landscape. 21 Those lands are n ot to b e seeN Wilderness, 2014 End of residency presentation with Alice Didier Champagne, CIAP - Île de Vassivière. 23 ₁. Wilderness, 2014 ₁. While appealing the sun (blue log), 2014 96 cm x Ø 20 cm, beech, glitter and glue. ₂. Seascape, 2014 190 x 160 x h. 90 cm trestles, wood and fabrics. 24 ₂. ₁. ₂. Wilderness, 2014 ₁ Les Jaraux, 2014 70 x 50 cm, diptych, digital printing on paper. ₂ Tropicalité, Royal Palms, 2014 90 x 140 cm, printed fabric, glitter coating. 25 Ask For Trouble, 2015 printed table cloth, table top, chairs 390 x 190 cm Table produced in collaboration with Maxime Bichon to host impromptu discussions about feminisms in group show ODRADEK, Les Instants Chavirés, Montreuil. 26 Googly Eyez, 2015 HD video, 13:05 min This video collage invests exoticism as a starting point exploring colonial and geographical imaginations relating to island imagery. Through a collection of footage shot in Montreal and Réunion island, the work investigates decolonial thoughts about landscapes and identity, narratives and territory. 27 Green Ray Turns Out To Be Mauve, 2016 digital print on satin, 90 x 140 cm A visual poem in the form of a sculptural work. The piece draws on personal investigations into sexual desire and navigates a metaphoric space where affects are politicised and understood through a tortuous web of social constructs. 28 SQUAD#1, 2016 documentation of the event at South London Gallery in collaboration with Cédric Fauq et Mélika Ngombe Kolongo In the form of a collage using texts, found footage, sounds and works by visual artists Angel-HO, Minia Biabiany, FAKA and Belinda Zhawi, that curated night of video, music and dance centred on Black Femme subjectivities while exploring the multiplicity of voices coexisting in the global now to engender matriarchal narratives. 29 PA U L m a h e k e (1985, Brive-la-Gaillarde, FR) Lives and works in London [email protected] E D U C AT I O N Open School East, London, UK, 2015 MA Fine Art, ENSAP-Cergy, FR, 2011 BA Fine Art (Hons), ENSAP-Cergy, FR, 2009 BA Etching and Printmaking (Hons), École Estienne, Paris, FR, 2007 R es i d e n c I es South London Gallery, 2015-2016 Fonderie Darling, Montreal (QC), Canada, 2015 The Serpentine galleries, London, UK, 2015 Centre International d'art et du Paysage, Vassivière, FR, 2014 Résidence de la ville de Montrouge, FR, 2014 Homsession, Barcelona, Spain, 2012 Villa Pan, French Institute, China, 2010 G r a n ts Fluxus Fund, French Institute, London, 2016 French Culture Ministry, ADAGP, Salon de Montrouge, 2014 P u b l i c at i o n s The Perfect School, The Serpentine Galleries, 2016 Agent Double#2, dir. Olivier Pierre Jozef, 2016 D'un abandon à l'autre, Inter Art Actuel, n°120, 2015 Abandonné.e.s à l'île, CIAP-île de Vassivière, 2014 Le Quotidien de l'Art, n°678, by Cédric Aurelle, 2014 59e Salon de Montrouge catalogue, by Daniel Bosser, 2014 Arts Magazine, by François Quintin, France, 2014 We Can't Wait for Better Times, Barcelona, Spain, 2013 Manuel #3, Glassbox, Paris, France, 2013 Remedy Paper, Brusells, Belgium, 2012 Speak Word le Journal de la Triennale #3, as part of LMDP, Abdellah Karroum, Paris, France, 2012 Les artistes en leur monde III, Marie-Paule Nègre, 2012 Drawing Now Paris I catalogue, 2011 s h o w s a n d c o l l ec t i v e e x p e r i e n c es 2016 Festival de l’Inattention, cur. Sophie Lapalu, Glassbox, Paris, FR I Would Have Done Everything for You/Gimme More, cur. Cédric Fauq, London, UK Publication launch Agent Double#2, dir. Olivier Pierre Jozef, Le Point Éphémère, Paris, FR Publication launch MovingUp, The Serpentine Galleries, London, UK Tableaux: a season of screenings and performances, Assembly Point, London, UK (screening) Ways of Living, cur. Arcadia Missa + @ Gaybar, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, UK (performance) In Conversation, artist talk, South London Gallery, London, UK Paysage Sauvage, artist talk in duo with Alice Didier Champagne, FRAC Limousin, FR HOWDY CHICAGO, cur. Filip Zezovski Lind + Joss Heierli, Royal College of Art Shuttle, London, UK SQUAD, night of performance, cur. Paul Maheke+Nkisi+Cédric Fauq, South London Gallery, London, UK A Gesture Towards Transformation, The Rebel Man Standard Festival, Guest Projects, London, UK Decolonial Love, Eventually: Could My Desire Have Enacted The -isms I Call Out? ICA, London, UK (workshop) Green Ray Tuns Out To Be Mauve, Green Ray, London, UK (solo) I Lost Track of the Swarm, South London Gallery, London, UK (solo) Art+Feminisms+Web, panel discussion as part of Wikipédia Editathon, Lafayette Anticipation, Paris, FR 2015 Ruptures in Places, cur. Katy Orkisz Association of British Insures, London, UK Agenda Salad, Open School East, London, UK Artist talk Dissections: Yinka Shonibare, DHC/ART, Montreal (QC), Canada ODRADEK, Les Instants Chavirés, cur. Mikaela Assolent + Flora Katz, Montreuil, France Beyond Beyoncé: Use it like a bumper! a public conversation about Black feminism and Hip-Hop cultures, Open School East, London, UK Parti(e) du Paysage, cur. Simon Cau, Simon Cau Gallery hosted by 60th Salon de Montrouge, France Artist talk Proposal to form a group of domestic poets, Le 116, Montreuil, France 2014 Re-former le monde visible, Le 116, cur. Marlène Rigler, Montreuil, France Festival of minimal actions, cur. Thomas Geiger, Bruxelles, Belgique Paysage Sauvage / Wilderness, Les Banquets du Château, cur. Marianne Lanavère, CIAP- Île de Vassivière, France 59th Salon de Montrouge, France 2013 VIVA!, Centre CLARK, Montreal, Quebec Si nous continuons à nous parler le même langage, nous allons reproduire la même histoire, Le Commissariat, Treize, cur. Mikaela Assolent + Flora Katz, Paris, France Videoakt, French Institute, Barcelona, Spain Supermarket 2013, LMDP crew, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden 2012 Papier Français, The Poetry Art Club, Brooklyn, New York, USA «Pratiques Furtives» : fragments d’une enquête, cur. Patrice Loubier, Skol art center, Montreal, Quebec PA U L m a h e k e 2011 Le musée performatif, Patio del Liceo, cur. Liv Schulman, Bueños Aires, Argentina Domaine Public invited by Ultralocal, Pornichet, Loire-Atlantique, France Mille Feuillets, La Vitrine, Drawing Now Paris I, Paris, France 2010 A New Ceremony, Villa Pan, Suzhou, China Hautlesmainpeauxdelapins : Les Figures de l’imposture, la Maison de la recherche de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France International Drawing Fair, Paris, France 2010 / 20 ans / Génération Gravure, cur. Françoise Pétrovitch, Paris, France 2009 Expotempo, Le Carreau, Cergy, France Aides Project, Yvon Lambert Gallery Paris, France Road-trip between San Francisco and Las-Vegas, USA Grand prix de peinture, Paris, France 2008 Youtube Battle : No Limit, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France 2008 sept. 31, Galerie 51, Seoul, South Korea Make a wish, Luxun Academy of Art and Design, Dalian, China Le cabinet de l’Heure Asiatique, En Cours, Paris, France