A brand–new body of work by artist Cathy Wilkes for the British Pavilion at this year’s 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
Wilkes’ exhibition for the Biennale Arte 2019 is bathed in natural Venetian daylight. The unadorned architecture of the British Pavilion provides the setting for an interconnected series of floor-bound sculptural installations, paintings and prints.
Through the measured process of creating her works, Wilkes experiments with all kinds of media and materials, and collects treasures and ingredients. Production – or what we see in the end – is the accumulation of all of these constituent parts. Her work recalls inchoate visions of interiors and places of loss, and meditates on the nature of love and the coexistence of life and death.
Her work also shows the disappearance and dematerialisation of life and the absence and anonymity of the author. Her works, which are all Untitled, render us all non-initiates; together we have equal capacity.
Emma Dexter, Commissioner of the British Pavilion and Director of Visual Arts at the British Council, says about the artist:
“The selection committee chose Cathy Wilkes for the fierce integrity of her work, alongside her growing international following. Her distinctive and highly personal sculptural installations evoke everyday rituals, while alluding to existential questions at the core of human existence, triggering complex new meanings and atmospherics within the grand domestic architecture of the British Pavilion.”
The exhibition was curated by Dr Zoe Whitley, Senior Curator at Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre. Dr Whitley is the first open-call curator to be selected by the British Council to work alongside the artist on a British Pavilion exhibition, presenting a significant international opportunity for mid-career curators. About Cathy Wilkes, Dr Whitley says:
“Working with Cathy Wilkes has been enlightening. I respect her uncompromising vision as an artist even more profoundly, having witnessed the creation of this ambitious and deeply felt body of work as it was taking shape. With an acute sensitivity to colour, composition and object placement, Cathy has truly transformed the British Pavilion.”
An illustrated book has been produced in partnership with HENI to coincide with the opening of the exhibition, designed by Yvonne Quirmbach and including texts by Cathy Wilkes and Dr Zoe Whitley.
Biography and selected exhibitions
Cathy Wilkes (b. 1966, Dundonald, Belfast, lives and works in Glasgow, UK) graduated with a BA from The Glasgow School of Art in 1988, and completed her MFA at the University of Ulster, Belfast in 1992.
Wilkes has produced an outstanding and unique body of work spanning 25 years, she is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential artists working in the UK today. She will represent Britain at the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2019.
In 2016, she was the inaugural recipient of the Maria Lassnig Prize and presented the largest solo exhibition of her work to date at MoMA PS1, New York (2017-2018).
Selected solo exhibitions include: Yale Union, Portland (2018); MoMA PS1, New York (2017-2018); Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (2017); The Modern Institute, Glasgow (2016); Tate Liverpool, touring to LENTOS Kunstmuseum, Linz and Museum Abteiberg, Möenchengladbach (2015 – 2016); Tramway, Glasgow (2014); Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (2013); The Modern Institute, Glasgow (2012); ‘I Give You All My Money’, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Chicago (2012); Gesellschaft Für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen (2011); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2011); Kunstverein München e.V., Munich (2011); Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2011); and ‘Mummy’s Here’, Studio Voltaire, London (2009).
Wilkes was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2008. She represented Scotland in the 51st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2005 as part of the exhibition ‘Selective Memory’, and was featured in ‘The Encyclopedic Palace’, the 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia’s central exhibition in 2013.
Selected group exhibitions include: ‘A Slight Ache’, Chapter, Cardiff (2018); ‘FOOD – Ecologies of the Everyday’, the 13th Fellbach Triennial of Small-Scale Sculpture, Fellbach (2016); ‘Mommy’, Yale Union, Portland (2015); ‘The Great Mother’ (curated by Massimiliano Gioni) Palazzo Reale, Milan (2015); ‘The Human Factor’, The Hayward Gallery, London (2014); ‘The Encyclopedic Palace’, 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2013); ‘Studio 58: Women Artists in Glasgow Since WWII’, Mackintosh Museum, The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow (2012); ‘Abstract Resistance’, Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis (2010); ‘Selective Memory’, Scotland + Venice, 51st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2005); ‘Selective Memory’ was subsequently exhibited at Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2005).
Cathy Wilkes would like to thank The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow and Xavier Hufkens, Brussels.
About Dr Zoe Whitley
Dr Zoe Whitley is Senior Curator at the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London. Prior to her role at the Hayward, she was Curator, International Art, at Tate Modern, where she co-curated the exhibition Soul of a Nation. Whitley has curated works by Jenny Holzer, Lubaina Himid and Isaac Julien, among others, and in 2013 conceived the exhibition The Shadows Took Shape in collaboration with the Studio Museum Harlem. Following an open call issued by the British Council, she is the first mid-career curator attached to the British Pavilion for the International Art Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia.
第58屆威尼斯雙年展英國館凱茜·威爾克斯作品
此次威爾克斯作品將在威尼斯的日光下呈現,未經過度裝飾的英國館建築為地面雕塑裝置、繪畫及版畫作品展示提供場所。在威爾克斯的創作過程中,她通過對多種媒介和材料的實驗,和珍奇物品和元素的收集,達成最終的成品效果。完成作品的展示,是整個創作收集過程的積累。她的作品喚起對缺失之地的視象,愛之本質的冥想,和生死共存的遐思。此外,作品中也顯現出對生命消逝和去物質化的探討,與創作者本身的匿名和缺席。所有作品都被稱作“未命名”,使觀者感受主動性的缺失;所有人擁有平等地對本質的領悟。
英國文化教育協會英國館視覺藝術總監—-艾瑪·德克斯特對藝術家評價到:
“委員會選擇了凱茜·威爾克斯的作品,是出於對她作品中本身強烈的完整性和她不斷增長的國際化觀眾的考慮。她充滿個人特色的雕塑裝置喚起人們對日常生活中儀式感的思索,同時也影射了關於人類核心的存在主義哲思,從而進壹步給予英國館這壹巨大建築環境的復雜新定義。”
此次展覽由南岸文化中心海沃德畫廊的資深策展人佐伊·懷特利博士策劃。懷特利博士是英國文化教育協會第壹位在英國國家館合作的公開選撥的策展人,這也是國際化推出職業中期策展人的壹次絕佳機會。對於凱茜·威爾克斯,佐伊·懷特利評價:
“和凱茜·威爾克斯壹同工作的過程是極具啟發性的。我尊重她作為藝術家在創作過程中不容妥協的精神。我見證了這些充滿野心的作品的誕生。凱茜通過她對色彩的絕佳敏感度,構圖和物品陳置,真正意義上的改變了英國國家館。”
與HENI合作出版的畫冊將自展覽開幕起發售。畫冊由伊芙妮·奎爾姆巴克設計,文字部分則由凱茜·威爾克斯與佐伊·懷特利博士共同創作。
藝術家生平與參展經歷
凱茜·威爾克斯,於1966年生於英國貝爾法斯特,現居格拉斯哥。1988年從格拉斯哥藝術學院獲得藝術學士學位,1992年於阿爾斯特大學榮獲藝術碩士學位。
在過去的25年中,威爾克斯創作了壹系列傑出且獨特的作品。她被廣泛認可為英國當今最具影響力的藝術家之壹。2019年,她將代表英國參加第58屆威尼斯雙年展。
2016年,她成為Maria Lassnig獎項獲得者,規模最大的個展由紐約當代藝術博物館後繼展出(2017-2018)。
傑出個人展覽包括:耶魯聯盟,波特蘭 (2018); 當代藝術博物館,紐約(2017-2018); Xavier Hufkens, 布魯塞爾 (2017); 現代學院,格拉斯哥 (2016); 泰特利物浦, touring to LENTOS Kunstmuseum, Linz and Museum Abteiberg, Möenchengladbach (2015 – 2016); Tramway, 格拉斯哥 (2014); Xavier Hufkens, 布魯塞爾 (2013); 現代學院,格拉斯哥(2012); ‘I Give You All My Money’, 芝加哥大學文藝復興協會,芝加哥 (2012); Gesellschaft Für Aktuelle Kunst, 不萊梅 (2011); 卡內基藝術博物館,匹茲堡(2011); Kunstverein München e.V., 慕尼黑 (2011); Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2011); and ‘Mummy’s Here’, 伏爾泰工作室, 倫敦 (2009).
2008年,威爾克斯獲透納提名獎。2005年,她的作品參與群展“Selective Memory”,代表蘇格蘭出展第51屆威尼斯雙年展,並於2013年第55屆威尼斯雙年展收錄在“百科殿堂”中。
參與群展包括: ‘A Slight Ache’, Chapter, 卡迪夫 (2018); ‘食物 – 每日生態’, the 13th Fellbach Triennial of Small-Scale Sculpture, Fellbach (2016); ‘Mommy’, 耶魯,波特蘭(2015); ‘偉大母親’ (curated by Massimiliano Gioni) Palazzo Reale, 米蘭 (2015); ‘人類因素, 海沃德畫廊,倫敦(2014); ‘百科殿堂,第55屆威尼斯雙年展, 威尼斯 (2013); ‘Studio 58: 二戰後格拉斯哥女性藝術家’, 邁金托什博物館, 格拉斯哥藝術學院,格拉斯哥(2012); ‘抽象抵抗’, Walker Arts Center, 明尼那普樂斯 (2010); ‘Selective Memory’, 蘇格蘭/威尼斯, 第51屆威尼斯雙年展,威尼斯(2005); ‘Selective Memory’ 後續展覽與蘇格蘭國立美術館,愛丁堡 (2005)。
凱茜·威爾克斯致謝現代學院/Toby Webster, Ltd,格拉斯哥,和Xavier Hufkens,布魯塞爾。
關於佐伊·懷特利博士。
佐伊·懷特利博士就職於倫敦南岸藝術中心,海沃德畫廊,是壹名資深策展人。在此之前,她供職於泰特現代藝術美術館國際藝術策展部門。曾共同策劃展覽“Soul of a Nation”。懷特利曾策展過Jenny Holzer, Lubaina Himid,Isaac Julien和其他許多藝術家的作品。2013年與Studio Museum Harlem共同展出 The Shadows Took Shape。在英國文化教育協會的公開競選中,她是第壹位策劃威尼斯雙年展國家館的在職策展人。