- A gallery provides a site for a curator; a curator provides a program for artists to display their work within. The staging of an exhibition creates a setting to consider art together, a place to meet a friend, catch up with an acquaintance or make a new connection –
For the length of his exhibition at The Java Project Ian Giles converts the gallery into a semi-functional space, a place for groups to meet and activities to be played out. The gallery which is housed within a studio complex will be utilised for a series of events including a one off Movie Club, artist crit groups and a closing event which will include Giles’ interactive performance Clay Meditation.
The space also acts as a platform for Giles’ new video ‘Essential Rhythms’ The video considers the spaces we provide for each other, public places and meeting points that allow individuals to come together to form groups and enact dialogues.
The video essay touches upon how open-access ceramic studios, donation-based yoga classes, dance-parties, artist-run- spaces and meeting groups offer a platform (pavilion) for individuals to collectively express themselves within the fold of a loose community. The video considers these communities through a prism of the work of sculptor Barbara Hepworth [1903-1975] and the Rietveld Pavilion which houses a collection of her sculptures in the grounds of the Kröller Müller Museum in the Netherlands. The film looks at the public and private spaces her abstract sculptures inhabit and contribute to – between the public and the private. Within its construction the film teases visual and ideological relationships between seemingly disparate links to form a whole.
Giles’ recent performance and video works have explored how human relations can create an energy that is as palpable as traditional sculptural materials.
The production of ‘Essential Rhythms’ has been supported by a bursary from CMIR and Spike Island Film and Video, Bristol UK and supported by the Java Project, Brooklyn.
-
Ian Giles (b.1985, UK) lives and works in London and New York. His videos and performances have been shown at galleries including: Whitechapel Gallery, London (2016); Spike Island, Bristol (2016); Tank.tv (2015); Global Committee, New York (2015); Cell Project Space, London (2015); Carroll/Fletcher, London (2013); Chisenhale Gallery, London (2012) and Glasgow International Festival, Scotland (2012). He received his MFA from Slade School of Fine Art, University College London and was a LUX Associate Artist 2012/13.
---------------------------------
Crit Group 1: Sept 30th 7pm
with Laura Cooper, Jillian McManemin and Carlos Rosales-Silva presenting their artworks for discussion.
Crit Group 2: Oct 7th 7pm
with Stephen Kwok, Alex Zandi, Ian Giles and Juliana Cerqueira Leite presenting their artworks for discussion.
Movie Club: Oct 9th 6pm
Offside by Jafar Panahi - Presented by Moive Club
Clay Meditation: Oct 14th 7pm
Members of the public are invited to take part in a meditation using clay. Taking place in a relaxed environment, everyone is given a small amount of clay to paint each other’s faces with. During the drying period – a measure for the 30 minute meditation – Ian Giles reads from selected texts and his own writings to guide the period of reflection.
252 Java Street, Brooklyn NY 11222
To attend any of the above events please RSVP: thejavaproj@gmail.com