| THE ECONOMIST presented by Contemporary Art Society |
25 St. James's Street |
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20 March - 5 May 2002 G-BRECHT As a painter G-BRECHT explores issues of power, happiness, entertainment, burn-out and agony. G-BRECHT is also a professional set-designer for theatre productins and the sheer scale of these paintings is reminiscent of stage backdrops and scenery, but more importantly it is evident that issues imagined or constructed realities, in which imminent action is intimated, are worked through in all his work. G-BRECHT graduated in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London following periods of study at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam in 1997, the Rietveld Academy, 1994 and threRoyal Academie of Fine Arts in The Hague, 1990. He has exhibited widely since 1994 and is in many corporate collections. G-BRECHT has been supoprted by the Royal Netherlands Embassy in London Jane Watt Birdcage will contain a flock of approximately 200 hundred plastic birds within a tall cage-like structure placed on the Plaza. The birds will appear to float silently on virtually invisible threads until a agust of wind blows them into action. As their wings rotate they appear to fly, but their journey is inhibited as they are caught within a labryinth of line. Watt creates site-specific installations in a variety of domestic, urban and gallery settings. She manipulates large amounts of, often mundane materials - light bulbs, beads, fishing line and mirrors - to create illusions of light, movement or mass which appear to defy gravity or logic. The work alters as the viewer moves around the space or if viewed at different times of the day. Watt, lives and works in London and graduated from the MFA Drawing and Painting course at Edinburgh College of Art in 1995. She is currently concluding PhD research at Manchester Metropolitan University on the role of artists in public art in Britain. Jane Watt is represented by Dominic Berning tel: 020 7739 4222 This project has been made possible with the generous support of Artline and Kee Systems www.keesystems.com |
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Welcome Stranger consists of two large canvasses, Fragment
(1995) and Solution (1995) and both works being realised in oil
on linen. The paintings depit two imaginary office scenes containing
workstations with temporary partitions, familiar office equipment
and anonymous workers busying themselves as if in a regular office
environment, but set against the backdrop of an abstract landscape.
The dream-like tranquility of the two imaginary scenes is interrupted
by the figure of a woman, repeated between the two works, who looks
out of the painting at the viewer, returning their gaze. This is
essentially a simple gesture: situating paintings of office scenes
in an office building. However, the vast size of these works (140x140cms)
and their mysterious setting highlighting G-BRECHT's use of the
building as a window to look into a concealed world.
Birdcage follows a series of bird installations that Watt
has been working on over the past year. She has used plastic birds
- which are manufactured as garden ornaments that have small propellers
as wings - to create different flocks and migrations across Europel.
The birds have been shown at a number of venues in London as well
as on the terrace in the Damasquine Gallery, Burssels and at the
Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth.