Eastside Projects | Abstract Cabinet Show

Abstract Cabinet Show
26 September to 8 November 2009

Laureana Toledo & John Taylor, Mithu Sen, Support Structure, Para/Site Art Space, Heather & Ivan Morison, Magnus Quaife & David Osbaldeston, Shedhalle Zurich, Michael Takeo Magruder, Bedwyr Williams, Grizedale Arts, The Hut Project, Malgras & Naudet Contemporary Zurich, Stan’s Café, Freee, Daniel Salomon, Juneau Projects, Stone Canyon Nocturne, DJ Simpson, Clarke & McDevitt presents…

Part of The Birmingham Comedy Festival 2–11 October
and
The Event 4–8 November

Abstract Cabinet Show is a public sphere of groups, collaborations, galleries in galleries and other phenomena joined together to execute functional constructions and to alter or refurbish existing structures as a means of surviving in a capitalist economy. The gallery is to be not a standard but a model to be adapted and exploited by artist activity in the spirit of Russian Constructivist El Lissitzky's inspirational Abstract Cabinet rooms of 1926-28 in Dresden and Hannover, Germany. Lissitzky developed radical new environments, rooms as artworks, containing other artists’ works including Naum Gabo, Francis Picabia, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Leger, Hans Arp. Kurt Schwitters and Alexander Archipenko. If previous gallery structures tended to lull you into passivity then the Abstract Cabinet demanded, through its design, that you are active. Eastside Projects and our special guests demand the same action of discovering new correlations between works, concepts and situations! This activity is a prompt for further work beyond the public space of the gallery into and onto the larger public sphere. This should be the purpose of the gallery as an Abstract Cabinet. Set within the scenery that formed a major part of Joanne Tatham & Tom O’Sullivan’s work in the previous exhibition at Eastside Projects, Abstract Cabinet Show continues themes and actions initiated in the inaugural exhibition at the gallery in September 2008. Abstract Cabinet Show includes:

The Premier of a new multi screen film, sound, bass amp and newspaper publication project, CORRESPONDENCE/ CORRESPONDENCIA, made collaboratively by Mexico City based Laureana Toledo and Duran Duran Bassist John Taylor. is Fueled by Toledo and Taylor's Super-8 footage of Birmingham and Mexico City - with Taylor filming Mexico and Toledo filming Birmingham - the work is a meditation on local and international constructed space and identity, the sound of cities and an inquisitive meeting of difference, coincidence and shared passions. Magnus Quaife & David Osbaldeston curate This Way Up, a group show of artists’ installation instructions within the interior ‘white cube’ space of the z-shaped gallery tunnel. Following on from I Love Pleasure Island, Heather & Ivan Morison present I Hate Her, I Hate Her, a dark dystopic sci-fi puppet show with a nod to Punch & Judy. The puppet show continues the story telling in relation to Pleasure Island, Eastside Projects unique crystalline red wood office, working with hand made clay, bone and fabric hand puppets performed by professional puppeteers. Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong curate This Is Hong Kong, a video-programme presenting a selection of artists from Hong Kong reflecting on the idea of politics, history, architecture, postcolonial issues and daily life in this territory. The Hut Project present 'Moderne Vehme', an attempt to vanish the Long Term Works of Eastside Projects. Mithu Sen’s spontaneous and playful project is an interactive performance acting upon and combining with the ‘personalities’ of the existing books displayed behind the sliding door panel of the gallery. Sen will be in the gallery from 22-27 September collaging, modifying, and providing new attributes to each of the publications in order to redress the psyche and ego of Eastside Projects and those who run it. It is not the robe that makes the monk!

For the Launch of The Event there were two new major performance works. Birmingham based international theatre group Stan’s Café were ‘The Commentators’ providing live commentary of the launch night as a durational performance from the top of the large tunnel structure in the gallery, and Birmingham artist duo Juneau Projects presented a new multi-media performance, ‘The Forward Statue In Flames’, in the form of a live gig with hand made instruments/sculptures, outfits, sound reactive visuals and audience percussion. Set in Eastside Projects new temporary building extension – a luxurious private hire limousine – Berlin based artists Clarke & McDevitt Present.. curate ‘Fuck Book’, a collection of new Tijuana Bibles (also known as Jo Jo Books or Fuck Books) produced by artists from around the World (under pseudonyms or anonymously). Tijuana Bibles were a form of American underground comics made popular in the depression era of the 1930s where the artists and publishers remained anonymous allowing for a freedom of expression and safety from prosecution. Fuck Books were most commonly eight pages in length, printed on the cheapest pulp paper and the stories were almost always pornographic. Whilst not overtly political they were by their nature anti-authoritarian. Fuck Book is partly a response to the shadow of recession in our current fiscal gloom.

• A new Artists Edition is available by Mithu Sen to coincide with the exhibition
– A2 silk-screen print in an edition of 20, priced at £120 unframed

• Click here to download a PDF of an interview with El Lissitzky prepared for
the publication accompanying the exhibition

• The exhibition 'newspaper' is available to buy online

• Fuck Book is available to buy online

prev / next