OPENING 16 January 2010
Andrea Geyer (born in Freiburg, Germany, 1971) lives and works in New York
Sharon Hayes (born in Baltimore, USA, 1970) lives and works in New York.
Göteborgs Konsthall presents, for the first time in Sweden, a wide selection of works by the New York based artists Andrea Geyer and Sharon Hayes. The exhibition will explore Geyer and Hayes’ individual works, with reference to their shared engagement in social and political issues, as well as a selection of their collaborative projects.
In video, photography, text and sound installations, the exhibition will give an insight into the artists performative and research based practices that engage in issues of political activism, representation of gender and feminist strategies. Aimed at shedding light on the dynamics between collective identities and personal actions, Geyer and Hayes interrogate different normative structures that affect the public opinions; history writings, language and political rhetoric. Inspired by the performance art of the 1960s and 70s conceptualism, their work forms critical reflections on our society’s political and social structures.
Andrea Geyer amalgamates narrative, fiction, historical data and theoretical elements in works that form poignant social commentaries. In investigating the politics of social spheres and spaces – real and imagined – Geyer interrogates the fragmentation and production of contemporary identities. In the black and white photographic serie
Spiral Lands, chapter 1-3, (2007-2009) Geyer investigates the historical dispossession of land from American Indians by the United States in a subtle picture/text installation combined by historical data, oral history, news and fictive travel reports. In reflecting on photography as medium and its’ decisive role in the “discovery myth” of the American West, Gayer forms a discriminating analysis of the relationship between identity and land and of the violent mechanisms of colonization that inform the contested narration of our global present.
Sharon Hayes explores the complex relationships between history, politics and the process of individual and collective awareness. In her work she researches historical parallels and reflects upon today’s social conditions. Inspired by language of politics and the dramaturgy of theatre, Hayes starting point for investigation can range from the rhetoric of a party-political or presidential speech to the slogans of leftist splinter groups. Through speeches, staged protests, interviews and demonstrations Hayes intervenes in public spaces in an exploration of ideologically and socially significant themes inscribed in American history. For this purpose she makes use of various artistic media such as video, installation and performance. Several works are characterized by a clean cut aesthetic and a deeply poetical language, addressing the relationship between love and politics.
Geyer and Hayes have exhibited together at Documenta 12 and Tate Modern, London as well as separately in spaces such as P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, NY and at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY.
The exhibition is presented in collaboration with Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland and is accompanied by a publication featuring dialogues with a number of central artists in the field of feminist enquiry with reflections upon related contemporary debates. Participating artists are; Mary Kelly, Wu Ingrid Tsang, Yvonne Rainer, Taisha Pagett, Renate Lorenz, Pauline Boudry, Ashley Hunt och Sally Guiterrez.
For more information about the artists
www.andreageyer.info
www.shaze.info
Images
Top: Sharon Hayes, In the Near Future, 2005-2009. Courtesy: The artist and Galerie Tanya Leighton, Berlin
Top right: Andrea Geyer, Criminal Case 40/61: Reverb, 2009. Courtesy: The artist and Galerie Thomas Zander, Köln
Bottom right: Andrea Geyer, Intaglio (The Audrey Munson Project), 2008. Courtesy: The artist and Galerie Thomas Zander, Köln