Ajemian, Lucas (US)
Carlsberg Tap E
Born 1975 in Waynesboro, Virginia, UsA
Lives in New York
Revolving doors have been placed in nature as an impenetrable architectural fence. The original function of the doors has been suspended. They do not move, they cannot turn and they do not allow passage. The sculpture Havegćrde (2008) is made by the American artist Lucas Ajemian who has also used revolving doors in his series Turnstiles & Revolving Doors (2003-) in which he has sketched in revolving doors and turnstiles in various fashion and advertising pictures. As a sort of self-appointed regulatory authority, Ajemian sets down boundaries and marks off zones that prevent a seductive model, for example, from moving freely within the idealized universe of the advertising image. In some drawings the revolving doors appear as a comment on a materialistic world in which movement and change are buzzwords, while the word standstill denotes a horror scenario. In other instances, the inserted revolving doors merely seem like absurd, pointless additions. In the sculpture Havegćrde, the restriction of the body's mobility is manifested in a very tangible way. Paradoxically, it is the revolving doors - in principle, doors that never close - that constitute a true
barrier.
The revolving door sculpture can also be seen as a construction of a number of
circular interlocking formations. The same repetition and pattern is part of the
performance U-TURN Kanon (2008), a collaboration with Giancarlo Vulcano, which will be performed on the opening day of the exhibition. It consists of a canon between several bands that are gradually activated by Ajemian's recital of a text. The text is about echoes, and among other source materials it is inspired by William S. Burroughs' The Electronic Revolution from 1970 which is related to the situation Ajemian creates. Burroughs describes how the playing and mixing of various recorded sounds can distort reality, create confusion and false news and perhaps even establish a completely new reality. during the performance of U-TURN Kanon, recordings of Ajemian's voice will loop while he performs live.
Ajemian dismantles the given structures, rebuilds them and inserts them in new
contexts. When they overlap and are repeated again and again, they approximate an abstraction, but without loosing the reference to the original context. The repetition, editing and re-organizing of images, sound and other material distorts the content. Ultimately, simple measures such as these may affect the media and the movement pattern of, an individual or a group.
-NG
Lives in New York
Revolving doors have been placed in nature as an impenetrable architectural fence. The original function of the doors has been suspended. They do not move, they cannot turn and they do not allow passage. The sculpture Havegćrde (2008) is made by the American artist Lucas Ajemian who has also used revolving doors in his series Turnstiles & Revolving Doors (2003-) in which he has sketched in revolving doors and turnstiles in various fashion and advertising pictures. As a sort of self-appointed regulatory authority, Ajemian sets down boundaries and marks off zones that prevent a seductive model, for example, from moving freely within the idealized universe of the advertising image. In some drawings the revolving doors appear as a comment on a materialistic world in which movement and change are buzzwords, while the word standstill denotes a horror scenario. In other instances, the inserted revolving doors merely seem like absurd, pointless additions. In the sculpture Havegćrde, the restriction of the body's mobility is manifested in a very tangible way. Paradoxically, it is the revolving doors - in principle, doors that never close - that constitute a true
barrier.
The revolving door sculpture can also be seen as a construction of a number of
circular interlocking formations. The same repetition and pattern is part of the
performance U-TURN Kanon (2008), a collaboration with Giancarlo Vulcano, which will be performed on the opening day of the exhibition. It consists of a canon between several bands that are gradually activated by Ajemian's recital of a text. The text is about echoes, and among other source materials it is inspired by William S. Burroughs' The Electronic Revolution from 1970 which is related to the situation Ajemian creates. Burroughs describes how the playing and mixing of various recorded sounds can distort reality, create confusion and false news and perhaps even establish a completely new reality. during the performance of U-TURN Kanon, recordings of Ajemian's voice will loop while he performs live.
Ajemian dismantles the given structures, rebuilds them and inserts them in new
contexts. When they overlap and are repeated again and again, they approximate an abstraction, but without loosing the reference to the original context. The repetition, editing and re-organizing of images, sound and other material distorts the content. Ultimately, simple measures such as these may affect the media and the movement pattern of, an individual or a group.
-NG