Tail Devourer

Maria Anastassio, Teresa Borasino, Julio Brujis, Josette Chiang, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, Marisol Malatesta, Jonathan Murphy , Tom Richards, Taryn Takahashi, Gabriel Tejada, Joe Watling , Wen Wu

Working Rooms off-site project at Bash Studios

65 - 71 Scrutton St
(corner with Curtain Rd)
London EC2A 4PG
map

Private view Thursday 7 May 09, 6 - 9 pm
Exhibition 7- 10 May 09

'Tail Devourer’ is a group exhibition that brings together the work of 12 artists whose works reflect in both conciliatory and subversive ways the ideas of cyclicality, self-reflexivity and self-recreation.

The notion of the ‘eternal recurrence’ has its roots in ancient Egypt.  It argues that the universe has been recurring, and will continue to recur, in a self-similar form for an infinite number of times.  The image of a serpent or a dragon eating its own tail surfaced in parallel to this notion.  The ancient Greeks continued subscribing to this belief, calling the creature ‘Ouroburus’ (tail devourer). The mythological symbolism of this sign continued to be adopted in both Eastern and Western religions over the centuries up until our present time. In its current incarnation, it is referred to in psychoanalysis as having an archetypical significance to the human psyche.

In this exhibition some of the artists refer to these ideas by linking old pictorial traditions and styles within their contemporary practice, projecting a future in which the past continues to prevail. This combination of traditional aesthetics and contemporary subjects, create a cycle in which the past, present and future are all inter-linked.
Other artists in this show adopt a more reluctant approach to the belief, questioning its validity. Their works depict recurring patterns, thus illustrating the struggle between precision and looseness.  This tension between systematic and spontaneous gestures, subverts the concept that the same events will repeat themselves, regardless of our free-will.

“ For the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; and, as he had no need to take anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not think it necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking; but the movement suited to his spherical form was assigned to him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence; and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle… ” *

* Plato, Timaeus, 33

Tail Devourer, Installation view

'(Untitled) An Idea of an Impossible Object’, Joe Watling

'Surprise, Surprise', Marisol Malatesta

'Palace', Gabriel Tejada