Object of Doubt

David Cotterrell

Object of Doubt Curated by Kirsty White

Céline Condorelli Aleksandra Domanovic Jamie Fitzpatrick Patrick Hough Maryam Jafri Emilio Moreno Laura Mulvey & Mark Lewis

Aleksandra Domanović, Portrait (bump map), 2011, inkjet print, red frame, 72×52 cm, edition of 5 + 2 AP. Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Leighton, Berlin

Private view: Friday 18 October 6 - 9pm
Exhibition continues: 19 October - 9 November 2019

In recent years, debates around iconoclasm have reentered the public consciousness, as countries around the world take steps to dismantle ethically ambiguous or ideologically contested artefacts. Examples include the Lenin statues in Ukraine, or the Confederate monuments in the United States.

When objects from the past sit uneasily with contemporary values, governments and individuals are faced with a choice—protect said monuments for future generations or remove them from public display. Either option comes with a myriad of political, social and ethical implications. Object of Doubt seeks to engage in these debates, presenting a variety of works by artists whose practices interrogate the ownership, preservation and destruction of artworks and cultural heritage.

Works include Laura Mulvey and Mark Lewis’ 1993 film Disgraced Monuments, which uses rare archival footage and interviews with artists, art historians, and museum directors to examine the fate of Soviet-era monuments through successive political regimes. As well as Maryam Jafri’s Getty vs Ghana (2012) —originally commissioned for the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2015 —which explores the foreign ownership of national heritage in the context of copyright and digitisation.

A new work by Jamie Fitzpatrick continues the artist’s use of patriarchal depictions of masculinity and nationhood to undermine them and render them absurd, while Aleksandra Domanovic’s Portrait (bump map) (2011) highlights how easily history can be altered through the manipulation of its material record.

Coinciding with the projected date for Britain to leave the European Union, Object of Doubt questions the formation and memorialisation of national identity. It highlights the longevity of ideology versus the longevity of material, as well as the potential to transform history through transforming the objects that record it.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an essay by curator Kirsty White.

Object of Doubt Events:

Saturday 19 October 4pm
Sitting in the Exhibition Talk by Céline Condorelli
Danielle Arnaud Gallery Admission free, booking not required

Artist Céline Condorelli discusses her relationship to the work of Bauhaus-trained designer, artist and architect Herbert Bayer (1900-1985), whose legacy is controversial due to his work for the National Socialist party in Germany in the 1930s. The talk will be followed by tea and cake in the gallery.

Saturday 26 October 2-4pm
What Remains and Object of Doubt Curators Tour
Tour starts in the Atrium, Imperial War Museum Admission free

Guided tour of What Remains — an exhibition curated in partnership with Historic England that forms part of IWM London’s Culture Under Attack season — by curators Paris Agar and Tamsin Silvey, followed by a tour of Object of Doubt at Danielle Arnaud by exhibition curator Kirsty White.

Saturday 9 November 1.30pm
Walking Tour of London Statues and Monuments
Meet at Trafalgar Square Admission free, booking not required

Join lecturer and novelist Michael Paraskos for a walking tour that will unravel the role colonialism played in shaping and funding London’s commemorative markers, including controversial, historical and contemporary works and the alleged oldest public sculpture in London. Return to Danielle Arnaud via public transport, with tea and cake at the gallery.

Céline Condorelli (CH, IT, UK) is a London and Lisbon-based artist, and one of the founding directors of Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK. She is the author and editor of Support Structures published by Sternberg Press (2009).

Aleksandra Domanović (b.1981, Novi Sad, former Yugoslavia) is an artist living and working in Berlin. Her work folds the aesthetic of classical sculpture into an investigation into how developing technology relates to the societies that create it.

Jamie Fitzpatrick (b.1985, Southport, UK) is an artist based in London. His practice deals with the rhetoric of image making, the relevance of the figure and how objects and totemic gestures such as flags, statues or plinths are used within the work to impose forms of power and control.

Patrick Hough (b.1989, Galway, Ireland) is an artist living and working in London. Incorporating moving image, photography and installation, Hough’s work explores the relationship between cinema, technology and archaeology.

Maryam Jafri (b.1972, Pakistan, Karachi) lives and works in Copenaghen and New York. She works across varied media with a specific interest in questioning the cultural and visual representation of history, politics, and economy.

Emilio Moreno (b.1980, Spain) is interested in the biography of objects, gestures and words. His practice investigates different notions of value and the realms of experience from which cultural values emerge. He lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Laura Mulvey (b. 1941) is Professor of Film at Birkbeck College, University of London. She is the author of many books including Visual and Other Pleasures (Macmillan 1989/2009), Fetishism and Curiosity (British Film Institute 1996/2013) and Citizen Kane (BFI Classics series 1992/2012).

Mark Lewis (b. 1957, Hamilton, Canada) is an artist and filmmaker based in London. His work draws liberally from film history, taking apart and re-assembling cinematic mechanisms and myths to help renew our fascination with an idea, a scene, a fragment of cinematic memory.

Kirsty White is a writer and curator. She is currently Programme Manager of Exhibitions and Events at Firstsite in Colchester. Between 2016-18 she founded and curated the contemporary art programme and commissioning platform Being and Appearing at the Swiss Church in London, and is the winner of the Burlington Contemporary Art Writing Prize 2019.

Kindly supported by:

Kirsty White, Object of Doubt, Installation View 1

Object of Doubt Curated by Kirsty White 2019 Danielle Arnaud Installation view

Céline Condorelli After Bayer 2019 Digital print on paper, Alcoa Aluminum, Advertisement featuring ‘Aluminum Kaleidoscreen designed for the Alcoa collection by Herbert Bayer’ (1958), offset-printed magazine advertisement 34.3 x 26cm each

Celine Condorelli, After Bayer (2), 2019

Celine Condorelli, After Bayer, 2019 (3)

Jamie Fitzpatrick Head 2019 Wax, scrim and polyurethane foam 56 x 36 x 31cm

Jamie Fitzpatrick RGE LLIAM F H ND F CAMBIDG 2016 C-type print on aluminium and oil bar 52 x 69.5cm

Jamie Fitzpatrick SPCE COMPN CAENH 8 DU OF KG GCO P C 2016 C-type print on aluminium and oil bar 52 x 69.5cm

Object of Doubt Curated by Kirsty White 2019 Danielle Arnaud Installation view

Aleksandra Domanovic, Portrait (bump map), 2011

Aleksandra Domanović Portrait (bump map) 2011 Inkjet print, red frame 72 x 52cm

Aleksandra Dominovic, Portrait Bump Map, 2011

Aleksandra Domanović Portrait (bump map) 2011 Inkjet print, red frame 72 x 52cm

Object of Doubt Curated by Kirsty White 2019 Danielle Arnaud Installation view

Mark Lewis and Laura Mulvey Disgraced Monuments 1993 Super 16mm transferred to digi-betacam and DVD 49 mins

Patrick Hough Funerary Relief 2016 CNC Milled Polystyrene, plaster, acrylic 74 x 43 x 42cm

Emilio Moreno Stone Acrobatics 2015 Single-channel HD film Spanish spoken with English subtitles 74 mins

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