03/19/2016 opening Thursday, 28/01/2016, 6 pm Sang

PRESS RELEASE
01/28/2016 – 03/19/2016
opening Thursday, 28/01/2016, 6 pm
Sang-Sobi Homme, Jonathan Monaghan, Géraud Soulhiol
SUSPENDED
Curator Rosario Caltabiano
Texts by Stephanie Vidal
Jonhathan Monaghan, Mothership, 2013, (still frame) computer animated HD film, 15 minutes. Music by Evan Samek. Courtesy Bitforms Gallery, NY.
(…) Between utopia and reality (…)
The exhibition SUSPENDED could be compared to a map of an archipelago, with different islands connected together. By bringing
together works each exploring very different media- namely drawing, sculpture and video- the latter strengthens ties that bind them.
In a line, in a block, or as a loop, their narrations find their inherent vibration increased in a configuration that seeks dialogue more
than harmonization.
These three artists – the Korean Sang-Sobi Homme, fond of Japanese culture, the American Jonathan Monaghan and the French
artist Géraud Soulhiol - all share a common desire to create miniature and distant worlds, devoid of human presence, and to deploy
them within a serial logic.
Just like islands, precious and suspended between utopia and parts of reality, their patient works seize the things of the world to
build new ones. Their strangeness appears necessary for us to consider the everyday life with a different look, and thus conceive
astonishment, these artworks call for a true time out, a break for contemplation, suspension…
These composite, synecdochic and closed worlds are proposals for a new horizon from where one can think about the world that surrounds and envelopes us. They work like an aposiopesis that totally emphasizes the discourse by interrupting it, like the sonnet that
completely counts its feet to set the whole language in motion, like the star that makes our thirst for infinite shining or the continent
in which the entire promise of an island lies in, and the other way round. Like a tightrope walk, Géraud Soulhiol’s architectural drawings weave the time links again according to their own patterns. Making
latitudes and longitudes obsolete, skyline and depth of field become the benchmarks of a new dimension that changes our perception. With his sculptures, Sang-Sobi Homme urges us to go beyond the first stage of perception, for us to move down the sensual and spiritual road. By taking up traditional japanese modes and methods, he shapes islands resembling zen gardens, opened to an inviting
exercise of contemplation. And in the middle of a smooth fight, Sang-Sobi Homme clean and erotic lines meet the baroque and visceral aesthetic that colours
Jonathan Monaghan’s production. Using incongruity and contrasts, he makes a mordant critique of the consumer society and its
undesirable futures.
Sang-Sobi Homme
Sang-Sobi Homme, Jardin aérien, series Contemplations Subtiles, 2015, wood, silver leaf, 27,2 x11,2 x 10,5 cm
Sang-Sobi Homme
… The inside of things …
Sensuality is omnipresent in Sang-Sobi Homme’s work, both in his physical relationship to raw material and through the topics he chooses to
explore. In “Stimulations Subtiles” - a previous voluptuous series oscillating between Eros and Thanatos – he inscribed a seminal vitality and a
taste for destruction into haptic polished works. To create his works, he uses at a domestic level, ancestral building and repairing methods usually used for monumental Buddhas such as wood
shavings. After having them slowly dry, he assembles and shapes them with self-made tools he created while he was still an apprentice, or tools
he bought during his travels, writing his name “Homme” on the stick.
The “Contemplations Subtiles” series roots its essence in the spiritual inspiration of Japanese Zen gardens one can find within private space,
public space of a garden or within the sacred place of a Buddhist temple. By miniaturizing nature, these gardens turn complexity of the world into
symbol, so that it becomes possible to understand it.
Human presence is forbidden in these metaphysical landscapes open on the cosmos. Thanks to outward contemplation, individuals begin to feel
imperceptible movement in the invariant. Purposely isolated and ruled by a space-time different than clocks, Zen gardens allow people to imagine
an origin in which these notions dislocate. It implies a meditation on our relation to suffering and death, which is essential to Zen thought. By materializing it, these gardens invite us to forget
our individuality, to accept past and future stages of our modest existence, so that it encourages us to live a better life in the present. This meditation on the ubiquitous nature of being – always inside and outside things – is to be found in the very presence of Sang-Sobi Homme’s
works. Indeed, the artist appends his seal on silk paper inside the sculptures he creates; once the work is achieved, the signature fades into matter.
The artist forgets himself and merges with his creation so that it can becomes clear of his presence and thus be offered to the contemplation of
all. BIOGRAPHY
Sang-Sobi HOMME is born in 1968.
He lives and works in Paris, France.
Solo shows
2010 : "Synestésie”, Installation, Galerie 22,48 m², Paris
2009 : “Sextuor”, Sculptures,Galerie Jeune Création, Paris
2000 : “Scène vide”, Galerie de Ginza Nakazawa, Tokyo
Group Shows
2016 : SUSPENDED, Galerie 22,48 m², Paris
2011 : “Rétrospective 2010.2011”, La Galerie du Crous de Paris,
Paris
2010 : “Strange Days”, La Galerie du Crous de Paris, Paris
2009 : “26ème Salon des Artistes Peintres et Sculpteurs du 15ème”,
Mairie du 15e Arrond. de Paris, Salle des Fêtes, Paris
2009 : “Passage_09”, Universal Cube, Leipzig, Allemagne
2009 : “Dialogue(s) à l’œuvre”, La Galerie du Crous de Paris, Paris
2009 : “Four Giants”, Galerie Artspacebolt management, Espace
Tristan Bernard, Paris
2007 : “Point de convergence”, La Galerie Michel Journiac, Paris
2007 : “Éloge des différences”, La Galerie du Crous de Paris, Paris
2002 : ”Toucher, Sentir et Naître”, Galerie du Citoyen du Musée d’Art
de Funabashi, Japon
2002 : “Exposition d’Art Contemporain de Jomon en 2002”, Musée d’Art
de Funabashi, Japon.
2001 : "Sensation de Présence - 2ème", L'Asie Contemporaine : Le point
de vue des artistes coréens vivant au Japon en 2001, Galerie du
Citoyen du Musée d'Art de Yokohama, Japon
1999 : "Quantum Jump", Salle d'Exposition du NEC Design
Compagnie, Tokyo
1998 : "UJ #3", Mise en scène d'une peinture à l'entrée de l'exposition
de J-TRIP BAR, Tokyo
1996 : "Média Art" , Musée d'Art de la Faculté des Beaux-Arts,
Univerité BIHON, Tokyo
1996 : "4ème Festival International de Média Art de la jeunesse de
Fukui", Invitation d'un Public International, Division de
l'Installation, Musée d'Art de Fukui, Japon
1996 : "Earth Works", Galerie du Citoyen du Musée d'Art de
Setagaya, Tokyo
1994 : "3ème Festival International de Média Art de la jeunesse de
Fukui", Division de l'Image, Musée d'Art de Fukui, Japon
Studies
2012 : Doctorant en Arts et Sciences de l'Art, Université Paris 1 PanthéonSorbonne, Paris
2006 : Master 2 Recherche Arts Plastique, Université Paris 1 PanthéonSorbonne, Paris
2003 : Chercheur en sculpture sur bois, Université nationale des BeauxArts de Tokyo, Tokyo
1999 : Master en Création plastique Espace-Temps, Université nationale
des Beaux-Arts de Tokyo, Tokyo
1997 : Licence en Image, Université Nihon, Faculté des Beaux-Arts,
Tokyo
Jonathan Monaghan
Jonhathan Monaghan, Mothership, 2013, (still frame) computer animated HD film, 15 minutes. Music by Evan Samek. Courtesy Bitforms Gallery, NY.
Jonathan Monaghan
.O. Visceral Critique .O.
Jonathan Monaghan’s videos are worlds seeking closure or maintaining a loop. They develop a critique of consumer society by showing what is wrong with it.
To construct his composite and dystopic worlds, Jonathan Monaghan uses 3D simulations found on the Internet and designs new ones that weave his narration.
Found elements repeat themselves from one video to another, in order to reveal the auto-referential characteristic of the world in which they were born and to
amplify its obsessions.
“Mothership”, leads us lexically to a Sci-Fi universe, dominated by an authoritarian, security-obsessed and colonizing power. Its flotilla is composed of floating
architectures looking like hallucinated zeppelins circled by precious ornaments. They are structured in delirious strata that seem rigorously articulated, following a
mysterious order. Recurrent beheaded rotundas thrust with ceremonial flags serve as launching bases for terrible chimeras or as anchoring points for grazing animals; such as the
cash cow much appreciated by marketing research and supporting on her back the City of London, the famous business district. Propelled by structures bearing
logos of big multinational companies, the capitalist model reveals itself as the dynamic base of this perverted universe. The organic shapes of these structures
evoke all at once intestinal, genital or even viral connotations, thus picturing a primary, infected and venomous society, a cannibal world constantly devouring
itself. In this dystopia, the image of man blurs into the works just like in Gerard Richter’s whose works prices reach record levels. Health equipment is exposed like ostentatious goods, luxury objects seem to be the only thing capable of giving birth, weapons serenely parade or dance, carefree, like Iron Man with his autonomous
armor, a mix of wealth and technology, who executes dance steps on a levitating podium.
Inspired by globalized American culture, the artist refers to video games – first cultural product in the world – and to super heroes, who carry values now exploited
on every medium by creative industries for their commercial potential. The feeling of freedom conveyed by movement in virtual environments is corrupted by the
grid, transformed in a trap. Even though it displays the brighter rainbow colors, the strange ribbon floating above the City suggests alienation by evoking the track of
Tron, a universe in which the creator becomes prisoner of his own creature. Like in a platform game, space is constructed vertically with an insistence on different
levels. The menu reveals a spatial hierarchy, unwillingly unwinding, and one thinks of elevators gliding up dozens of floors in corporate headquarters.
In another video called “Escape Pod”, the image of the elevator is becoming more precise and takes us towards the highest point; where power culminates through
architecture. The door opens on a Duty Free shop, a total and absolute symbol of a limitless consumerist regime.
In Jonathan Monaghan’s worlds, there seems to be no escape and desperate attempts to flee are always confronted to the order of a system characterized by
embellished brutality. Signs for emergency exits are omnipresent and bear the appearance of shallow politeness, that is not fooling anybody.
BIOGRAPHY
Jonathan Monaghan was born in 1986.
He lives and works in Washington, United-States.
Solo shows
2014 : "Cardiff Contemporary", The Beuys Pavilion, curated by
EMP Projects, Cardiff, UK
2015 : "Architecture of Fantasy", Zuecca Project Space, Venise, Italie
"roBOT Festival 07", commission, "Spore Baroque", curated
"Escape Pod", bitforms gallery, New-York, Etats-Unis
by Sarah Corona, Bologna, Italy
2014 : "East Gallery: Dauphin 007", Angel Gallery, Toronto, Canada
"Moving Image Istanbul", presented by Curator’s Office,
"Alien Fanfare", Curator's Office, Washington D.C.
Haliç Congress Centre, Istanbul, Turkey
"Hot House Video Series: Jonathan Monaghan", Washington
FACT, "SciFi Shorts" curated by The Royal Standard &
Project for the Arts, Capitol Skyline Hotel, Washington D.C.
Outcasting, Liverpool, UK
2013 : "Robot Ninja", Market Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
Rencontres Internationales, "Hyperculture" Gaîté Lyrique,
2010 : "Life Tastes Good In Disco Heaven", Hamiltonian Gallery,
Paris, France
Washington D.C.
2013 : "Moving Image London", presented by Curator’s Office,
2009 : "Calling All Angels", Atopia, Oslo, Norway
OXO, Tower, London, UK
Screen City, "(De)constructing Space" curated by Daniela
Arriado
& Mirjam Struppek, Stavanger, Norway
Group Shows
Rockbund Art Museum, "I See" curated by Clemens
Wilhelm& Constantin Hartenstein, Shanghai, China
2016 : "New Frontiers", curated by Shari Frilot, Sundance Film
Glitch Festival, Run Computer Run, "oh Internetz!" curated
Festival, Park City, Utah
by Nora O’ Murchú, Dublin, Ireland
"SUSPENDED" , curated by Rosario Caltabiano,
Glasgow Film Festival, "Market Gallery Off Site Shorts"
galerie 22,48 m², Paris, France
Glasgow, Scotland
2015 : "On Demand 3", curated by Carolyn H. Drake and Suzanne
Wallinga, tegenboschvanvreden, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2015 : "The Real Thing" , National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts,
Publications
Taipei, Taiwan
2015 : "+/-", Hartford Art School, Joseloff and Slipe galleries,
University of Hartford, CT
2014 : & Magazine, "Gam[ing] Issue" Volume , Tel Aviv, Israel
2015 : "Gilding The Lily", AREA 405, Baltimore, MD
December 2014
2015 : "Myth and Mutations" curated by Chris Romero, Reverse
2014 : "Museums in the New Mediascape,", Ashgate. Surrey, UK
Space, New York, NY
2013 : "Jonathan Monaghan: embezzling the (un)real" ,Catalogue.
2014 : "IN/Out Source", Art Museum of Nanjing, University of the
Text by Sarah Corona and Jeremy Couillard. Curator’s
Arts, Nanjing, China
Office, Washington D.C. October 2013
2014 : "The New Romantics", Eyebeam Center for Arts and
Technology, New-York, NY
Awards and residencies
2014 : "IM Material Artefacts", National Museum of Wales, Cardiff,
Technology, New-York, NY
2015 : Trawick Prize, First Place, Bethesda, MD
2013 : "PostPictures", bitforms gallery, New York, NY
Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder, Artist in Residence,
2013 : "Child’s Play"curated by Mindy Solomon, Art Center Sarasota,
Trondheim, Norway
Sarasota, FL
2014 : DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, Artist Fellowship
2013 : ""artNOW DC", Kohl Gallery, Washington College,
Program, Washington D.C.
Chestertown, MD
2013 : Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Emergency Grant, NY
Screenings
Studies
2015 : PAF 2015, “Jonathan Monaghan: Animated Worlds” Olomouc, Czech Republic
"LOOP Barcelona", Barcelona, Spain
"Black Box 2.0", curated by J. Fryett and A. Couillaud, Seattle
2011 : Master Beaux-Arts, Université du Maryland / University of
Maryland, MFA
2008: Baccalauréat Beaux-Arts, Institut de Technologie de NewYork / NY Institute of Technology, BFA
Géraud Soulhiol
Géraud Soulhiol, Londres (series Terre!), Watercolor and Mechanical pencil on white Canson, 70 x 50 cm
Géraud Soulhiol
(((O))) Depth of White (((O)))
“Terre!”, Géraud Soulhiol’s series reminds us of the explorer who screams when discovering the promise of a new continent through his telescope.
Inside the inner frame, a skyline appears. It shows a whole universe to contemplate but still unreachable, deeper and deeper as we come closer.
Just like a patient demiurge, Géraud Soulhiol creates closed worlds within a work always in progress. Using architectural canonical models - stadium, bridge, tower -, the artist makes them change starting from an invariant base made of concrete, stone or painting, in order to subvert one’s
point of view.
The drawings included in “Terre !” series can be likened to colliding universes smoothly aligned by the artist in order to disturb both spatial and
temporal references. On a suspended line that evokes panoramas by painter and engraver Louis le Breton depicting the still audacious 19th
century Navy with its old demons, Géraud Soulhiol carries art history and architecture references.
One can, for instance, recognise through meticulous attention to details, iconic 20th century monuments next to the mill Pieter Bruegel the Elder
represented in his 1564 painting “The Way to Calvary”. This appeal to astonishment through a play of perspective reminds us of 17th century
mysterious architectures by Monsù Desiderio (a pseudonym used by French painters François de Nomé et Didier Barra). The openness to new
horizons that characterized the entire series seems to pay tribute to Flemish and Italians Primitives who were looking for a space of experimentation and self-expression within the margins set by models. Thus, the primary flatness of Géraud Soulhiol’s drawings acts as a foil to his search for the depth that imbues his work. In his last drawings, the
artist brings an innovation: while mixing white gouache with the usual watercolour, he gives his patterns a vibrating and enigmatic touch. White
gouache and paper meet together, in a fluttering surface open to imagination and working together to create a space for reverie.
BIOGRAPHY
Géraud Soulhiol was born in 1981
He lives and works in Paris, France
Solo shows
2016 : Nouveaux Horizons: exposition et ateliers à la Galerie Jeunes
Publics, Centre Pompidou Metz, FR
2014 : "Drawing Now", Galerie 22,48 m², espace Commines, Paris, FR
2013 : "La Vue", Galerie 22,48 m², Paris, FR
2011 : "Vanités", Projective City, Paris, FR
Group Shows
2016 : SUSPENDED, Galerie 22,48m², Paris, FR
2015 : "Paysages comme une image", Salle Lucie Aubrac Montmorency, FR
2014 : "Paysages rêvés ou le rêve est une seconde vie", Fontenay-leComte, FR
"Jeune Création 2014", Le Centquatre, Paris, FR
"Les esthétiques d'un monde désenchanté", Centre d'art
contemporain de Meymac,
Meymac, FR
"Still Water", Galerie 22,48 m², Paris, FR
"Paysage rêvés ou le rêve est une vie", Fontenay-le-Comte, FR
2013 : "Festival Gamerz 09", Aix-en-Provence, FR
"Play/Display", Galerie 22,48 m², Paris, FR
"Tricoter la Ritournelle", Galerie Marine Veilleux, Paris, FR
"No Milk Today", Kunsthalle HB55 - Berlin, AL
2012 : "Papier(s) 2", Galerie Linette, Montpellier, FR
"Seconde Nature", Projective City, Paris, FR
2011: "Festival Gamerz 07", Galerie Susini, Aix-en-Provence, FR
"Road Strip 04", Pavillon Blanc,Colomiers, FR
56ème Salon de Montrouge, FR
Studies
2007 : DNSEP, École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Toulouse, FR
2006 : Échange Erasmus, Académie des Beaux-Arts de Cracovie,
Pologne
2005 : DNAP, École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Toulouse, FR
22,48 m²
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