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related info › View video of Kenneth Feingold's You › View video of Nico Jorcino’s Life Cycle › Tangled Up In You brochure

other past exhibitions › Lauren Argo: Life as Art › Mikhail Baryshnikov: Dominican Moves › Blue Apple Players: Tableau Vivant › Dan Dutton: Ballads of the Barefoot Mind › Dia de los Muertos: Day of the Dead › Finding Family › Marvin Francis: Prison's Paper Trail › Anthony Goicolea: Ramp › Ilse Haider: Selected Works 1997-2002 › Hybridity › Looking Now › Past Highlights › Everybody Always Thinks They Are Right › Marc Swanson: Beginning to See the Light › Through the Rabbit Hole › Tangled Up In You › John Waters: Unwatchable Series › Mickie Winters: Learning to Bend

Tangled Up In You

Connecting, Coexisting, and Conceiving Identity

February – September 2008
street level gallery
 

The multi–stranded threads of family and romance that wind their way through each of our lives are explored, celebrated, and interrogated in the 21c Museum's current exhibition. From Louise Bourgeois's searing childhood drama to Bill Henson's provocative, mysterious vision of young love, to Will Ryman's sculptural staging of an interminable Family Dinner, these works examine the tension, the tenderness, and the inescapability of our most essential relationships. We are born connected to others, as Max Streicher's Trio in a Box  so poignantly illustrates. The struggle to create a unique self fosters an endless cycle of attraction and repulsion, of defining and denying boundaries at once.

Communication, verbal, physical, and otherwise, is the essential tool for both self–expression and for connecting with others. Several of the works included examine the complex ways in which both individuals and groups speak, touch, and reach outward and inward – attempting to create and conceive a conceptual place as unique beings and in communion with others. This labyrinthine exploration of communication and individuality is examined by Kenneth Feingold's talking heads sculpture: who is the You  of the title? Is it one of the heads, or is it the viewer? Eva Koch's evocative video Approach offers a celebratory invitation to marvel at the human drive for communication, for a communion between self and others that is seen, heard, and felt.

"An artist can show things that other people are terrified of expressing."
– Louise Bourgeois

The works in this exhibition offer us an unashamed glimpse of those bonds of family and loved ones that are embedded within us. Using materials that both repel and attract, Andres Krisar explores a darker commentary on family relationships. Guerra de la Paz, on the other hand achieves an almost whimsical approach – through their use of reclaimed materials, they explore the human condition and family ritual. Displaying an unfamiliar or sometimes disturbing insight, these artists allow us to marvel at our own hindrances and uniqueness that makes us undeniably human.

Including a variety of mediums such as sculpture, photography, printmaking, and video, Tangled Up In You  marks the second year of exhibitions held in the first floor gallery at 21c Museum Hotel.

Exhibited Works

• Albano Afonso (Brazilian), Natureza Morte, 2006. Glass and wooden box, mirror on plastic bones and light equipment.
• Hans op de Beeck (Belgian), All Together Now…, 2006. Video, running time 6:20 min.
• Louise Bourgeois (French), Blue Bed, 1998. Etching and aquatint in colors.
• Louise Bourgeois (French), Hologram #4, 2003. Hologram glass.
• Louise Bourgeois (French), Hologram #6, 2003. Hologram glass.
• Kelli Connell (American), The Valley, 2006. Digitial lambda print.
• Guerra de la Paz (Cuban), The Family, 2005. Mixed media.
• Kenneth Feingold (American), You, 2004. Silicon, fiberglass, electronics, computers, bedding and compressor.
• leonardogillesfleur (American), Irreconcilable Differences #1, 2005. Mixed media.
• leonardogillesfleur (American), Irreconcilable Differences #2, 2006. C-print.
• Bill Henson (Australian), Untitled, 2000-2002. C-print.
• Nico Jorcino (Argentinian), Life Cycle, 2006. Mixed media, ironing board, bat, iron, laundry, motor, wooden table.
• Hendrik Kerstens (Dutch), Bathing Cap, 1992. C-print.
• Hendrik Kerstens (Dutch), Pimp up towel, 2006. C-print.
• Eva Koch (Danish), Approach, 2005. Video, running time 3:20 min.
• Anders Krisar (Swedish), One as Two, 2005. Aluminium, magnets, cable, hardware.
• Cornelia Parker (British), Rorschach, 2004. Silver, metal wire.
• Christa Parravani (American), Before the Meadow, 2006. C-print.
• Robert Pettena (British), Victorian Play, 2002. Video and photograph.
• Will Ryman (American), Family Dinner, 2005. Sculpey, plywood, plastelina, acrylic paint, resin, PVC tubing, wire mesh and papier-mache.
• Carlos and Jason Sanchez (Canadian), The Baptism, 2003. C-print.
• Max Streicher (Canadian), Trio in a Box, 2006. Nylon, spinnaker, electric fan.
• Bill Viola (American), Surrender, 2001. Video installation.
• Ed Young (South African), It’s Not Easy, 2004. Video, running time 4:31 minutes.

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