The Armory Show
4 - 7 March 2010
Starkwhite will present 1001
Nights an installation by John Reynolds at The Armory Show, NY
from 4 - 7 March 2010
Reynolds' new work embraces 1001 Nights
as a point of departure. Folding stories within stories, Arabian
Nights tracks, among other things, the somnolence of daily life
toward a contemplation of fate and destiny. These life-preserving
stories offer a rich poignancy in today's context.
Reynolds charts a pungent bricolage of
contemporary and historical material from literary, political,
philosophical, and art sources to create a text-driven yet visual
'Harem of the Mind'. Like a 'dance craze or a charismatic cult',
the sprawling tale of 1001 Nights has mesmerized readers with its
melding of tragedies, love stories, comedies, burlesques, erotica,
and geographies.
He sees the appeal of stories emerging
from Baghdad over ten centuries ago as a timely framework on which
to explore a shifting and perilous present. He goes about his work
plundering fragments from such diverse contemporary commentary as
Tariq Ali on 'Saudi Oil', David Simpson on 'America, Abu Ghraib and
the War on Terror', Stephen Holmes on 'Neo-Con Futurology', and J.
Daniel Hays on 'Iraq: Babylon of the End-Times. He ranges across
Richard Burton, Marina Warner, Walt Disney, and Naomi Klein, to
Calvino, Edgar Allen Poe, Flaubert and Rushdie. Also Edward Said,
Aristophanes, and Sean Maguire with the US Marine Corps.
Reynolds says: "1001
Nights comes out of an unpicking of books, articles and
texts for terminologies, for acronyms, vocabularies and lists, for
songs, place-names, poems, indexes and glossaries from pre-Islamic
Persia to the Green Zone, Scheherezade to Stormin' Norman, Babylon
to Bushland, Sinbad the Sailor to Cyber-Jihad."
Visually this work unravels in the form
of an installation of 1001 small canvases consisting of hand drawn
silver text on black grounds punctuated with a series of flaring
metallic nocturnal paintings. Conversely this 'meaning made of
fragments' may further multiply, heap and pile, shaping a ruin of
plundered language stacked like a soft ziggurat. Obscuring,
revealing, forlorn.
John Reynolds lives and works in
Auckland, New Zealand. Over the past three decades he has
established a reputation as a painter who employs aspects of
drawing (sketches, plans, charts, doodles) and different types of
representation (expressive marks, symbols, patterns, writing) for
poetic effect. Not content to be pigeonholed as a painter, he also
incorporates sculpture, installation and site-specific outdoor
works into his practice. These include Cordyline
commissioned by Alan Gibbs for The Farm, Kaipara and Snow
Tussock and Golden Spaniard commissioned by Oceana
Gold for a heritage and art park in East Otago. He is also
recognised for the diversity of his practice and ability to work in
a variety of scenes such as - architecture (with Nicolas Stevens),
fashion (with Workshop, World and Karen Walker), music and
publishing (record, book and magazine covers) and television
(Questions for Mr Reynolds documentary with Shirley
Horrocks and Works End with Chris Knox for Art Land).
Reynolds is also the recipient of a Laureate Award from the Arts
Foundation of New Zealand.
Recently Reynolds and collaborator Arch
MacDonnell produced CERTAIN WORDS DRAWN, a book that celebrates the
range of his work with writing by 12 contributors. The book is a
finalist in this year's Montana New Zealand Book Awards.
Solo shows and representation in recent
events and group exhibitions include: One Hand Read, Art
Los Angeles Contemporary, the international art fair of Los Angeles
(2010); Table of Dynasties, ART HK, the international art
fair of Hong Kong (2009); Dorothy Napangardi / John
Reynolds, curated by Robert Leonard, Institute of Modern Art,
Brisbane (2009); Walters Prize Exhibition, Auckland Art
Gallery (2008); John Reynolds: Under Milk Wood by Dylan
Thomas, a collaboration between the artist and actor/director
Geraldine Brophy, Christchurch Art Gallery (2008); Speaking
Truth to Power, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland University
(2007); Zones of Conflict, 15th Biennale of
Sydney (his work Cloud was commissioned for the entrance
hall of the Art Gallery of New South Wales), curated by Charles
Merewether (2006); 54321: Auckland Artists Projects,
curated by Ngahiraka Mason, Auckland Art Gallery (2006); Nine
Lives: The Chartwell Collection, curated by Robert Leonard,
Auckland Art Gallery (2003); HEVN: NOT TO SCALE, curated
by Sophie McIntyre, Adam Gallery Victoria University, Wellington
(2002): and From K Road to Kingdom Come, curated by
Gregory Burke and Robert Leonard, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New
Plymouth (2001).
Located in New Zealand on Auckland's
Karangahape Road, Starkwhite presents a programme of artists'
projects, solo shows, independently curated exhibitions and
occasional forays into new music and other interdisciplinary
practices. Starkwhite also represents artists from New Zealand,
Australia and the Pacific rim.
Please contact the gallery for further
information and images.
Starkwhite
510 Karangahape Road, Auckland, New Zealand
Tel. +64 9 3070703
Monday to Friday: 11.00am to 6.00pm
Saturday: 11.00am to 5.00pm
starkwhite@starkwhite.co.nz
www.starkwhite.blogspot.com
www.starkwhite.co.nz
