HEATHER PHILLIPSON
Yes, surprising is existence in the post-vegetal cosmorama –
21 JUNE 2013 - 13 OCTOBER 2013
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, is presenting an exhibition of new and recent work by Heather Phillipson (born London, 1978). Yes, surprising is existence in the post-vegetal cosmorama – consists of three videos within custom made environments in BALTIC’s Ground Floor Gallery. Cardiovascular Vernacular (as in ‘it’s time for my regular cardiovascular vernacular’) 2013, will also be launched. A new audio-visual walking tour that takes visitors outside the gallery space, the work will link BALTIC with its sister venue, BALTIC 39, in Newcastle upon Tyne.
The exhibition invites visitors into a multi-layered interior of hidden and revealed structures, containing moving images, sounds and machineswhich are re-coloured, re-sized and inhabited. Portals and enclosures provoke a succession of arrivals and departures and throughout, the voice is a pervasive and contagious presence.
Alongside several new works in the gallery, Phillipson has created a new audio-visual walking tour, Cardiovascular Vernacular (as in 'it's time for my regular cardiovascular vernacular'), that will take visitors beyond the building and into the city. Begin this video directly outside of the Ground Floor gallery at BALTIC, once you have seen the exhibition, using your own smartphone or internet-enabled device.
On entry the visitor encounters immediately and for a short time balloons weapons too-tight clothing worries of all kinds 2013, introducing a world that is occasionally familiar. The video detours through incidental music, gestures, undertones, overtones and deliberate decorative elements while the narration glues together the painted, collaged and digitally enhanced backdrops. The second video, ha!ah! 2013, takes a plunge into oral hygiene rituals from within a boat on a wave of water bottles. Last, A Is to D What E Is to H 2011-13, undertakes an odyssey between language and architecture. Constructed around two interchangeable words and two interchangeable locations, the mouth becomes the central byway, a cavity for language and sensual experience.
In counterpoint, Cardiovascular Vernacular (as in ‘it’s time for my regular cardiovascular vernacular’), a 12-step walking tour, journeys beyond the gallery. The city and its systems become prompts for physical and virtual digressions. Delivered through a smartphone, the tour is an exercise class with no visible instructor. Its 'personal trainer' has the appearance of omniscience and authority, but is subject to blunders, doubts and technical glitches. The walking tour is presented as part of Festival of the North East, taking place throughout the region in June 2013.
Heather Phillipson was born 1978 in London, lives in London
Please note that the tour video is 53 minutes long and accessing the tour will use your own personal mobile data. A downloadable version available through iTunes BALTIC podcast feed will be available soon.
RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
immediately and for a short time balloons weapons too-tight clothing worries of all kinds, LOOP Art Fair with Rowing Projects, Barcelona, 2013; Splashy Phasings, Random Acts, Channel 4 television, 2013; Zabludowicz Invites: Heather Phillipson, Zabludowicz Collection, London, 2013; Bleurgh, CIRCA, Newcastle, 2012; PRESSURIZATION, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2012.
RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
Flux Projects, Flux Night, Atlanta, USA, 2013; WE OBJECT! Aid & Abet, Cambridge, 2013; Verging on the Absurd, Contemporary Arts Society, London, 2013; PLAY, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, 2013; LOCO Film Festival, BFI, London, 2013; The Space between Words: Filmic Expansions, Café Curio, Camden Arts Centre, London, 2013; EYE MUSIC FOR DANCING, Flat Time House, London, 2012; The Dan Cox Library for the Unfinished Concept of Thingly Time, Cubitt, London, 2012; London Open, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2012; Performing as Publishing, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland, 2012.
Philipson was a LUX Associate Artist 2011/12. Phillipson is also an award winning poet recent awards Faber New Poets Award 2009, Eric Gregory Award 2008.