Alicia Frankovich: Counter/action
1 February - 1 March 2008
Starkwhite is pleased to present Counter/action by
Alicia Frankovich, from 1 February to 1 March 2008. The artist
wishes to acknowledge Creative New Zealand's support for the
development and presentation of the work in this exhibition.
"Alicia Frankovich's surreal environmental installations often
feature suspended or inverted furniture. At their core, they are
concerned with bodily expression, which is manifested through
gymnastics and sports. ...The objects Frankovich constructs and
positions in space suggest a scene that seems to have taken place
before our arrival and is now 'frozen' in the condition in which we
find it. ...The power of her work consists in its resistance to the
empty nature of the spectacle, with its grandiose and useless
gestures. The intentionally low-tech materials she employs contrast
with the advertising image propagated by health clubs of an
energetic body sculpted by and dependent on sophisticated
machinery. Frankovich's work provokes us to wonder to what extent
the body can continue to rely on external artifices? What is the
meaning of overcoming one's physical limitations? Frankovich
materialises and gives these questions form within her spatial
enclosures in order to explore and expand their day-to-day
relevance." Lisette Lagnado, Alicia Frankovich, ICE CREAM,
contemporary art and culture
Frankovich's works are sculptural but played out through various
forms such as the photographic image or drawing, the object and the
outcome of performance. Though not maintaining one specific style
or medium, the works break with and intercept space in an inversion
of forms; the upside down object in its attempt to overcome
convention draws upon the notion of the flip and the suspended
release in mid air. Frankovich's autobiography as an ex-gymnast is
used in method to approach her materials with a sense of flux and
flight and is referenced in the broader sense throughout her
movement across planes. Driven by the body there are domestic
references as well as ad-hoc musings in an attempt to break with
rigid structures and intercept architectural spaces, vectors and
zones from light to grand gestures. These new works exhibited are
concerned with the event and the post-performance object. From the
found situation to the interrupted trajectory, in Counter/action
Frankovich allows the viewer a space to alight, and inverts our
perception of common ground.
Alicia Frankovich's recent solo shows include: Of Stadiums
and Construction Sites, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces,
studio 12, Melbourne, (2006); WE ARE HOUSED (in and around all
this stuff), The Physics Room, Christchurch, (2005);
Standard Apparatus, CLUBSproject, Melbourne, (2005);
Alicia Frankovich, Rm, 103, Auckland, (2004); and A
Kelly Frankovich Production, Conical Inc, Melbourne, (2004).
She has also been represented in group shows including: Body
Work, Le Case D'Arte, Milan, (2008); Invisible
Miracles, Neon FDV, Milan, (2007); Busan Biennale, South Korea
(2006); www, Kaliman, Sydney, (2005); Manoeuvre,
St Paul St. Gallery, Auckland, (2004) and Lost in
Translation, Small Gallery, CalArts, Valencia, (2004). She was
a studio artist at Gertrude Street Contemporary Art Spaces in
Melbourne from 2005-6 and this year she will take up an artists'
residency at the Firestation studios in Dublin.
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.
For further information on the exhibition, or images, please
contact the gallery.
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.co.nz
