Lisson Gallery is delighted to host Rodney Graham’s third solo exhibition. The
show features a large new video projection work entitled City Self / Country Self.
Set in Paris in 1860 the film is part of a trilogy with Vexation Island, 1997 and
How I became a Rambling Man, 1999. It was shot in 35 mm in the historic town
of Senlis, near Paris and deals with man and nature, city and country. In this work
Graham plays two versions of himself, an urban dandy and a provincial rustic,
two paired particles set for a repeated, cataclysmic encounter played out within
the long cinematic tradition of the ‘knockabout’ Also featured in the exhibition is
a two part photographic work, Fishing on the Jetty, where the artist plays Cary
Grant in Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief. There is also a new text based work My
only Novel translated from the French, after Beckford and Mark Twain.
Read moreGraham has held a lifelong preoccupation with rock music culture which has
intensified in the last three years. In this time he has produced a number of
remarkable music works including his video work Rambling Man, 1998; a slide
and music piece entitled Aberdeen, 2000 after the birthplace of Kurt Cobain; A
sound installation entitled Listening Lounge II, 1999; Little thought, 2000, a video
clip for one of his own songs. It has also resulted in the release
of two rock CDs written and performed by the artist to accompany his solo
exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Vienna in 1999 and the Dia centre for the Arts,
New York in 1999. A 10 inch record has just been released by the Kunstverein
Munich. As part of his growing musical activity he will be giving two
performances in London during the show and releasing a single, What is Happy,
baby?
Rodney Graham was born in Canada and is recognised internationally for his
intellectually rigorous art, developed since the mid seventies. His multi layered
and complex art includes photography, film, video, sculpture, music and text
based works. It negotiates between many different identities and territories
drawing connections between them. The work usually takes the form of an
appendix to a familiar work or genre from the worlds of fashion and
entertainment, Freudian psychology, philosophy, science, mathematics, film and
literature. Graham’s work can be found in a number of public collections
worldwide and has been shown in landmark exhibitions such as the 1987
Skulptur: Project in Munster, the Documenta IX in Kassel, Germany and the
Venice Biennale 1997. His work is currently on show at the DIA Centre for the
Arts, New York; the Westflischer Kunstverein in Münster as part of the DAAD
award residency program; the Mead gallery at Warwick Arts Centre.
