Pavement
Previous Exhibitions
Scrape/Scratch/Dig: Richard Wentworth
2nd April - 14th May 2009
Richard Wentworth 'Scrape/Scratch/Dig' (2001)
The film Scrape/Scratch/Dig explores different notions of the ways in which cities are ordered and marked. It brings together images of a senior cartographer working on the 'A-Z', along with that of a road-marking crew pacing out and re-writing the actual surfaces of the city. Both of the tasks involve the craft of defining and redefining the ground upon which people walk and the ways in which they may interact with the city. Even when nature makes an appearance – in the form of an expansive sky – it is still marked by the vapour trails of passing aircraft leaving fading traces of their brief presence.
Richard Wentworth's work often includes the displacement and juxtaposition of common and familiar objects. The appearance of things in unfamiliar places and altered circumstance produces imaginative readings and new possibilities. Scrape/Scratch/Dig (2001) sees a continuation of an interest in the urban and the seemingly banal. Just as Wentworth presents everyday objects in much of his work, here he explores the every-day activities that help construct the systems we use to navigate our way through the city. The film was originally part of Wentworth's An Area of Outstanding Unnatural Beauty, which took place in an abandoned warehouse at Kings Cross, London in 2002, it was also shown in the Global Cities exhibition at Tate Modern in 2007.
Kamera Kinetics: 3 short films by William Raban
14th February - 17th March 2009
William Raban 'Civil Disobedience'
Kamera Kinetics consists of the short films Sundial (1992), Confessions (1997), and Civil Disobedience (2004) by William Raban.
These three films relate back to Raban's engagement with Expanded Cinema and his direct 'landscape' pieces, yet also incorporate the documentary aspect of later works. They all suggest the transient aspect of the environment and expose the layers of meaning attached to objects.
Raban often concentrates on the actual process of assembling and then presenting film through the manipulation of the time and mechanics of the projector. Kamera Kinetics reflects this aspect by utilising the short throw distance of the projection. This form of display removes the social implication of the arena created by the distance between the projector and the screen, instead revealing the machinations of the illusory virtual image.
There is a political strain running through all three pieces. In Sundial bankrupt Canary Wharf is effectively demoted to an alternative Big Ben, while Civil Disobedience includes a score composed by David Cunningham that features elements of Margaret Thatcher's speech regarding the contentious sinking of the Belgrano in the Falklands War as a type of mantra enhanced by the looping of the film. These three pieces feature time-lapse, rhythmic editing and a punctuated visual structure and were specifically programmed by the artist for Pavement gallery to create further layers of meaning through their composition and theme.
Rut Blees Luxemburg: Caliban Towers
Rut Blees Luxemburg's Caliban Towers
Pavement began its programme with Rut Blees Luxemburg's large scale photographic work Caliban Towers. Originally installed as a billboard sized commission, its 'public' setting was underneath a railway bridge in the Shoreditch area of London. The image depicts a group of tower blocks at night, opening up questions about the relationship of image, architecture and location. In the current environment, the generic form of the tower block as a type of social housing exists in a contested state – a shift in meaning from a site of exclusion to one of exclusivity. The re-staging of Caliban Towers in Manchester is particularly apt. In its new setting the work questions the ways in which we utilise urban space; perceptions of class and social status and the location and purpose of 'public' art.