 Karen Russo: video still, work in progress, 2007/08 Karen Russo Asthetics of Disappointment Brendan Monroe Microcosm Karen Russo "Aesthetics of Disappointment" "The underground world depicted in my work suggests a metaphor for an inner world, where forces, powers and energies interact, as well as a metaphor for a darkened political landscape - a world without light where social healing has to take place." Filmed in the tunnel under the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Karen Russo's most recent video is the first in a planned 3-part series of videos investigating the traits of the subterranean blind mole-rat, and the history of one of the world's holiest places. The opening of Jerusalem's Western Wall tunnel to the public in 1996 inflamed one of the most violent riots in Israel's history, with Palestinians claiming the tunnel ran beneath the Temple Mount and was therefore a physical threat to some of the most sacred sites in Islam. The bloody events ended up with the death of 70 Palestinians and 16 Israeli soldiers and helped to escalate the political strife in the Middle East. The work features the artist crawling along a narrow tunnel system, blind-folded and digging using sharp claws made out of metal. This strange mole-woman is juxtaposed with footage of a real mole-rat, a species that lives underground in elaborate tunnel networks, and is highly territorial, aggressive and solitary. When the artist-as-mole detects a second mole-woman a violent struggle ensues. Karen Russo's most recent photographic project is a response to her investigation into the compulsion of 75 year old William Lyttle, a London resident fined £100,000 for digging tunnels under his house for over 40 years and who still defends his right to dig. Dubbed the "Mole Man" by local newspapers, Lyttle's network of tunnels have endangered the foundations of neighbouring structures. Russo's encounter with this eccentric and aggressive recluse ended in violence against the artist - but the photographic record Russo is left with provides a tantalising glimpse into to the inaccessible world of the unconscious and suggests "...that what you can't see is more important than what you can, and that a place that could be hell for some is another's heaven." Born in Israel in 1974, Karen Russo studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and has had solo exhibitions at One in the Other, London (2006); Dvir Gallery, Tel-Aviv (2006); Delfina, London (2005); VTO, London (2005); Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2001); Herzliya Museum, Israel (2000). Recent group exhibitions include "An Archaeology", Project 176, London (2007); Montevideo, Amsterdam (2007); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2007); Krefeld Museum, Germany (2006). Russo lives and works in London.  Brendan Monroe: Schooling, 2007 acrylic and collage on paper, 107 x 114.5 cm Brendan Monroe Microcosm Brendan Monroe has a cult-following on the West Coast of the States, known first for his self-published comic books that feature the "Sours" and increasingly now for his quirky drawings and paintings that are gaining widespread subculture recognition, illustrating an interior world of micro-organisms getting on with their daily lives and loves. The characters that Monroe invents to inhabit his world become a means of using suggested narrative as his entry point to the work, rather than responding to a particular choice of medium and its cultural history. Monroe therefore embraces all possibilities of production, whether directly relating to fine art drawing, painting and installation, to commercial products such as toys and skateboards. In this exhibition entitled "Microcosm", Monroe will exhibit new paintings and sculptures that reveal his inventiveness in the handling of materials: collected scrapings of paint get collaged into sculptural relief effect; burls of wood get carved and polished into monolithic sculptures that transcend their heavy overtones of 1970s tiki kitsch. Juxtaposing paintings that incorporate his strange life-forms with more direct abstraction, Monroe encourages the viewer to explore a range of topics including our relationship to the bodily and abject, interior and exterior space, and our individual understanding of macro concepts of the universe. Brendan Monroe (b. 1980, California) lives in Berkeley, California, having received his B.F.A, at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA in 2004. In April 2006 Monroe had a solo show at the Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica, CA. Monroe has had several comic published over the last two years. This will be the first time his work will be exhibited outside the US. Exhibition 18 January - 1 March 2008 Gallery hours Tues-Fri 2 - 7 pm, Sat 11 am - 5 pm, and by appointment ARQUEBUSE rue de l'Arquebuse 14 CH-1204 Genève Telephone +41(0)22 807 04 40 Fax +41(0)22 807 04 41 Email info@arquebusegalerie.com www.arquebusegalerie.com |
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