LONDON.- Max Wigram Gallery presents a solo show of new works on paper by Marine Hugonnier. The opening of the exhibition marks the inauguration of the gallery’s new premises at 106 New Bond Street.
Marine Hugonnier’s work is about the nature of images and the history, culture and politics that are associated with them. As Christian Rattemeyer writes in her recently published JRP Ringier monograph: "Marine Hugonnier has persistently investigated the role of the image, its abilities and its limitations. For Hugonnier, what is referred to as the image is not just the visual representation of an object, a landscape, or a person, but the vortex of a network of power relations, historic conventions, political ambitions, and aesthetic force. More importantly, for Hugonnier the image always carries the promise of an excess of meaning, a resistance to its subjection to a purpose of commerce, propaganda, and ideology—in short the spectacle. Her work is to rescue the image; sometimes from itself, sometimes for itself, but most often from the multiple forces that enact upon it a battle for dominance."
The works on paper presented in this exhibition continue to deal with the obstruction of the image, holding back information in order to question it. The Art for Modern Architecture series consists of the front pages of The New York Times that report on the fall of Communism in 1991. The newspaper images have been concealed by silk-screen cut outs, so that we have to draw on our own memories of the events to fill in the gaps.
The vividly coloured, abstract shapes in this series respond to five large-scale collages being shown alongside: Modele 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 (revision). In these works, the monochromatic paper is cut, rounded and inflated to create intensely pigmented but subtle sculptural objects. These shapes are a response to the artist’s intimate thoughts and emotions and relate to the feelings that recent news events have provoked in her. Formally, however, there is a clear nod to modernism and Hugonnier conceives this body of work as a negative homage to the loss of modernism’s utopian aspirations and progressive thoughts. In this sense, they are ‘revisions’ of those values and a challenge to re-think them in postmodern times. As is usual with Hugonnier’s work, the immediacy and formal power make the initial, intense impact. It is only when we look closer that we discover layers of meaning that lend a deeper poignancy to these apparently simple pieces.
Hugonnier (b. 1969, Paris, FR) lives and works in London. Last year she had solo shows at Malmö Konsthall (Sweden), Villa Romana (Florence, Italy), Kunstverein Braunschweig (Germany) and FRAC Champagne-Ardenne. A monograph on her work has just been published by JRP Ringier.
Group shows in 2009 included Time as Matter, MACBA (Barcelona, Spain); Modernologies MACBA (Barcelona, Spain); Then the Work Takes Place, Kunsthaus Graz (Austria); Summertime; or close-ups of places we’ve (never) been SFAI (San Francisco, USA). In 2008, Hugonnier’s latest film The Secretary of the Invisible, premiered at MAMCO, Geneva (Switzerland). Solo exhibitions in 2007 included S.M.A.K. (Gent); Philadelphia Museum of Art (USA); Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin) and Kunsthalle Bern (CH). In 2007 her work was also shown at the 52nd International Exhibition of Contemporary Art of La Biennale di Venezia and in Pensée Sauvage at Franfurter Kunstverein & Ursula Blicke Foundation (Germany). Group shows in 2006 included The British Art Show 6 and the 2006 Busan Biennale (Korea).
