ArchiveExhibition

Vital Force

5 Sep-28 Sep 2024
PV 12 Sep 2024, 6-8.30pm

October Gallery

London WC1N 3AL

Overview

October Gallery presents Vital Force, an exhibition that includes striking works by El Anatsui, Kenji Yoshida, LR Vandy, Romuald Hazoumè, Golnaz Fathi, Jukhee Kwon, William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Govinda Sah ‘Azad and Elisabeth Lalouschek amongst others. Vital Force gives space for the innate energies of each unique artwork to manifest before bringing them together in a powerful drama of luminous interactive forms.

Highlights include Kenji Yoshida’s magnificent large-scale work, La Vie (Life),1993, which employs an elliptical language of coloured forms rendered in gold and silver leaf. This extraordinary piece marries modernist abstraction with the delicate gilding techniques of Japanese tradition. This large-scale panelled work will be juxtaposed with a shimmering wall-hanging by El Anatsui. Created from recycled bottle-tops, intricately stitched together, the work will be hung in such a way as to allow the viewer to explore the range and composition of colours on both sides of the mesmerising metallic installation.

Romuald Hazoumè will be represented by one of his signature masks. These provocative works, assembled from found objects, operate as impromptu portraits of individuals, highlighting the artist’s astute social commentary. Adopting the ubiquitous plastic petrol cannister as his iconic signature, Hazoumè’s work is deeply rooted in the political and cultural context of Benin and its interactions with the wider globalised world beyond. Taken from her Hulls series, LR Vandy’s Resistance is an impressive large-scale wooden work that incorporates manilla rope tied into knots set delicately into its frame. These knots evoke the clenched fist, a symbolic nod to the Black power salute, the feminist movement of the 80s and the braided African hairstyle of Bantu Knots. Vandy’s use of hulls and knotted rope allude to the complex histories of transatlantic trade, and, more specifically, to the transport of migrants as commodities.

Jukhee Kwon creates her intricate sculptures out of unused and abandoned books. By skilful slicing and cutting, she transforms these tomes into sculptures bursting from the books’ spines, streaming out in cascading waterfalls, to explore ambient surface areas. Govinda Sah’s latest canvas comprises subtly interwoven layers of acrylic marks and traces. Sah is fascinated by the universes within and beyond our earth-bound vision. Similarly, Iranian artist Golnaz Fathi’s bold gestural work, When the rain comes, we can be thankful, 2021, presents interwoven layers of enigmatic meanings.

Also on display will be Nierica - Caressed By Fire, a vibrant work by Elisabeth Lalouschek painted in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Lost to sight for thirty years, the painting will be shown for the first time since 1990. Finally, ink and spray paint works by artist and author, William S. Burroughs, are exhibited in conversation with longtime collaborator and fellow artist Brion Gysin’s work De la Cité des Arts..., an abstract ink on paper, depicting the artist’s unique perspective from the window from which his studio overlooked the Ile Saint Louis in Paris.

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