Outset was delighted to support Rivane Neuenschwander’s 2008 exhibition, Suspension Point at the South London Gallery. The work 1001 Nights was subsequently gifted to the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
For the exhibition internationally acclaimed Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander completely transformed the gallery space with a site-specific installation. Monumental in scale, yet incorporating minimalist elements including drilled holes, the residual dust and tiny perforations in every frame of a 16mm film, this major new work encompassed a number of discrete but inter-related components. Born of the artist's unique sensitivity to space, Neuenschwander's installation took as its starting point the full height of the SLG's impressive main exhibition hall, the beautiful glass ceiling lantern and the horizontal line which notionally divides the space in two. A visually elaborate but essentially simple wooden structure supported a new floor punctuated by a staircase leading visitors to the level above and an entirely fresh perspective on the upper area of the gallery. A perpetual dialogue between additive and reductive processes was established, a dialogue which permeated the exhibition, each work within it and the relationships between them. The temporary structure equally transformed the lower half of the gallery, populating it with supporting struts and obscuring the daylight which would otherwise flood the gallery. Here the floor became a ceiling, emphasising the interior nature of lower space.
An atmospheric sound piece mimicking raindrops lent atmosphere to the space and was triggered by a water droplet periodically falling into a basin of water, a 'lake', on the upper level. Also upstairs, a miniature mountain range formed from the dust from the holes in the wall made a further reference to landscapes in nature, as did the two film pieces in the show. One followed the journey of a huge soap bubble which never bursts as it floats across tropical terrain, while the other, Arabian Moons, introduced another cycle, that of night and day, in an exhibition where every interpretative direction lead to another and ultimately back to its starting point.
ON VIEW: 3rd October – 30th November 2008
