Play What's Not There
17 April to 22 June 2014
Works by Steven Campbell, Edward Krasinski, Linder, Bruce Nauman, Robert Whitman, Katharina Wulff and Cerith Wyn Evans
Curated by Michael Bracewell
Taking its title from an exhortation made by Miles Davis to his musicians, this exhibition identifies occasions in art when the seductions of consummate style or cleverness are sacrificed to gain access to a greater artistic, philosophical or spiritual reality. Such attainment may be achieved in varied ways: by invoking states of invisibility or self-negation, by the assumption of a mythic identity, by transforming repetition into incantation, or through the conversion of aphoristic elegance into gestures of transcendence.
These ideas are informed by the existentialist writings of Søren Kierkegaard on the nature of subjectivity and faith, and the inspiration taken from them by W.H. Auden, notably in his poem ‘New Year Letter’, written subsequent to his arrival in New York in 1939 and shortly before his reconversion to Anglicanism.
Image credit: Miles Davis. Photographer: Urve Kuusik. Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment
Selected texts
Events
Katharina Wulff
Tifaout ntitrit, 2014
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Katharina Wulff
Tifaout ntitrit, 2014
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Edward Krasinski
Spear, 1964
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Paulina Krasińska and Foksal Gallery Foundation
Foreground:
Edward Krasinski
Spear, 1964
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Paulina Krasińska and Foksal Gallery Foundation
Edward Krasinski
Spear, 1964
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Paulina Krasińska and Foksal Gallery Foundation
Steven Campbell
The Hiker Said, ‘Death, You Shall Not Take The Child’, 1983
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
British Council Collection
Exhibition view
Play What’s Not There
Foreground:
Steven Campbell
The Hiker Said, ‘Death You Shall Not Take The Child’, 1983
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
British Council Collection
Foreground:
Cerith Wyn Evans
A Community Predicated on the Basic Fact Nothing Really
Really Matters, 2013
Background:
Katharina Wulff
Tifaout ntitrit, 2014
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna
Katharina Wulff
Tifaout ntitrit, 2014
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Foreground:
Cerith Wyn Evans
A Community Predicated on the Basic Fact Nothing Really
Really Matters, 2013
Background:
Katharina Wulff
Tifaout ntitrit, 2014
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna
Cerith Wyn Evans
A Community Predicated on the Basic Fact Nothing Really
Really Matters, 2013
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna
Robert Whitman
Line in the Sand (Negative), 2004
Pace Gallery
Photography by Marcus J. Leith
Linder
The Working Class Goes to Paradise, 2000
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Blum & Poe and Stuart Shave/ Modern Art
Robert Whitman
Wavy Red Line, 1967/2003
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Pace Gallery
Robert Whitman
Wavy Red Line, 1967/2003
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Pace Gallery
Foreground:
Edward Krasinski
Untitled, 1967
Background:
Edward Krasinski
Untitled, 1967
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Paulina Krasińska and Foksal Gallery Foundation
Foreground:
Edward Krasinski
Untitled, 1967
Background:
Edward Krasinski
Untitled, 1967
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Paulina Krasińska and Foksal Gallery Foundation
Edward Krasinski
Untitled, 1967
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Paulina Krasińska and Foksal Gallery Foundation
Katharina Wulff
Der Ausflung [The Excursion], 2014
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Collection of Craig Robins, Miami
Katharina Wulff
Der Ausflung [The Excursion], 2014
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Collection of Craig Robins, Miami
Left to right:
Cerith Wyn Evans
Leaning Horizon (Neon 1.7m), 2014
Leaning Horizon (Neon 2.1m), 2014
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Cerith Wyn Evans
Leaning Horizon (Neon 2.1m), 2014
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Cerith Wyn Evans
Leaning Horizon (Neon 1.7m), 2014
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Bruce Naumam
Clown Torture (I’m Sorry and No, No, No. No), 1987
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Pinault Collection
Bruce Naumam
Clown Torture (I’m Sorry and No, No, No. No), 1987
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Pinault Collection
Bruce Naumam
Clown Torture (I’m Sorry and No, No, No. No), 1987
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Pinault Collection