EN

MADRAGOA is delighted to present the fourth and last exhibition of MADRAGOA EMBORA, its programme devoted to a dialogue between the works by two artists, that will take place in the gallery’s new space at Cossoul. The fourth exhibition will present works by Richard Artschwager and Nick Bastis.

In the late 60s, Richard Artschwager (American, 1923 – 2013) coined the word blp to define his marks, elongated lozenge shapes that made unexpected appearances inside and outside museums. Applied to surfaces using stencils or vinyl stickers, blps act like punctuation marks in space, letting the viewers’ gaze linger on walls and buildings, drawing their attention to structures, places and things that often go unnoticed. While they could be mistaken for redactions or obstructions, these black dots are at the same time openings or “portable holes” to what is beyond the wall, enabling both perceptive and imaginary experiences.

Nick Bastis (New York City, 1985. Lives and works in Vilnius) will present the video Making Friends (2014). Protagonists appear as three young men casually shooting at bottles hanging from a tree; two of them are wearing a mask depicting the face of the third. Footage of trees, bottles, and municipal pipes protruding from the ground repeatedly create static counterpoints to the action of the three young men. This elliptical juxtaposition of images triggers a mechanism of substitution in which narrative connections are replaced by a visual alliteration of shapes.

In combination, the blp could be imagined as an echoey tunnel through which the alliterative devices (sounds, images, etc) in Making Friends are seen being sorted, like a keyhole receiving misfits, copies, hurried lock-pickers, and the eye of a neighbour.

Actually I was thinking of another time not too far back in the Blessed Past, a time spent with a close companion of the day and of the night. My companion chose to torment our simple twosome by planting between us a pernicious vegetable, Scheffleria by name. And then preceded to devote to this vegetable a passion which had the quality of a perpetual handshake, this shaking...a parody of our simple live-and-let-live twosome. But by Grace not perpetual, not forever; the Scheff passed through the four stages of earth, air, fire, and water, but not in that particular order; finally 86'd the Bottom Line which is the only reasonable answer to Where It's At. Whoever you are Whoever you are Whoever you are Are you listening? Are you listening? Are you listening? Get it in at the end about one hand shaking.

Richard Artschwager, Lecture given at Franklin Furnace, New York, in 1976, and at the La Jolla Museum of Art, San Diego, California, in 1980.

PT

A galeria MADRAGOA tem o prazer de apresentar a quarta e última exposição da MADRAGOA EMBORA, que tem o seu programa dedicado ao diálogo entre o trabalho de dois artistas, e tem lugar no novo espaço da galeria na Sociedade Guilherme Cossoul. A quarta exposição conta com trabalhos de Richard Artschwager e Nick Bastis.

No final dos anos 60, Richard Artschwager (Americano, 1923 – 2013) criou a palavra blp para definir suas marcas, formas de pastilhas alongadas que fizeram aparências inesperadas dentro e fora de museus. Aplicados a superfícies usando stencils ou adesivos de vinil, os blps agem como marcas de pontuação no espaço, permitindo que o olhar dos espectadores permaneça em paredes e edifícios, chamando a atenção para estruturas, lugares e coisas que muitas vezes passam despercebidas. Enquanto estes podem ser confundidos com redacções ou obstruções, os pontos negros são ao mesmo tempo aberturas ou "buracos portáteis" para o que se encontra para lá das paredes, permitindo experiências perceptivas e imaginárias.

Nick Bastis (Nova Iorque, 1985. Vive e trabalha em Vilnius) expõe o video Making Friends (2014). Os protagonistas aparecem como três homens jovens casualmente disparando a garrafas penduradas numa árvores; dois deles usam uma máscara com o rosto do terceiro. Cenas de árvores, garrafas e tubos municipais que sobressaíam do chão criam repetidamente contrapontos estáticos para a ação dos três jovens. Esta justaposição elíptica de imagens desencadeia um mecanismo de substituição em que as conexões narrativas são substituídas por uma aliteração visual de formas.

Em associação, o blp poderia ser imaginado como um túnel de eco através do qual os dispositivos aliterantes (sons, imagens, etc) são vistos e ordenados em Making Friends, como um buraco da fechadura que recebe chaves de medidas erradas, cópias, tentativas de arrombamento e o olho de um vizinho.

Actually I was thinking of another time not too far back in the Blessed Past, a time spent with a close companion of the day and of the night. My companion chose to torment our simple twosome by planting between us a pernicious vegetable, Scheffleria by name. And then preceded to devote to this vegetable a passion which had the quality of a perpetual handshake, this shaking...a parody of our simple live-and-let-live twosome. But by Grace not perpetual, not forever; the Scheff passed through the four stages of earth, air, fire, and water, but not in that particular order; finally 86'd the Bottom Line which is the only reasonable answer to Where It's At.

Whoever you are

Whoever you are

Whoever you are

Are you listening?

Are you listening?

Are you listening?

Get it in at the end about one hand shaking.

Richard Artschwager, palestra dada no Franklin Furnace, Nova Iorque, em 1976, e no La Jolla Museum of Art, San Diego, California, em 1980.