‘the light becomes the eye, and as such no longer exists'
title of the exhibition is borrowed from Michel Tournier’s novel; Friday or The Other Island (1967), in a retelling of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.
In The Light Becomes The Eye, EUCA Annex brings together the work of five artists - Alasdair Asmussen Doyle, Benedict Drew, Melanie Manchot, Miranda Pennell & Sasha Pirker - whose diverse practices playfully investigate the malleability of physical & filmic space, the slippages between perception and proximity, and the agency of the camera.
For EUCA Annex’s first screen-based exhibition the distinctive new space goes dark, creating an intimate and resonant setting. All the artists in this exhibition cast light, in personal and ephemeral ways, but when viewed collectively this gathering of immersive films appear to both speak through us and sing of the adjacently possible.*
Alasdair Asmussen Doyle’s single-shot film negotiates the limits of human and technological sight, contemplating the movable space between the horizon and the ends of visibility. Benedict Drew’s film explores the psychedelic potential of music and the moving image, as an ecstatic response to socio-political anxiety. From a point of disorientation Melanie Manchot’s film leads the viewer into a highly formal choreographed scene, and yet that shared gesture balances notions of nature and human agency. An unpredictable camera plays a game of cat and mouse with the subjects of Miranda Pennell’s film, where losing contact can be traumatic, as the viewer is fixed by the gaze of dancers who crowd the frame. Sasha Pirker’s film is a compelling architectural study of an absentee; a place that is both a retreat and an exhibition object, the apartment of the artist Heinz Frank proves to be full of hidden functions and surprising views.
curated by TC McCormack
*The term ‘the adjacent possible’ was coined by the theoretical biologist Stuart Kauffman, to describe ‘all those entities that are one reaction step away from the actual’, in a kind of ‘shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself’. (Steven Johnson, 2010)
Opening times: Friday to Sunday, 12–6pm / or by appointment
Location: EUCA Annex, 67 Havant road, London E17.
Nearest stations - Tube: Walthamstow Central. Overground: Wood Street
Buses: 123, 212, W16, 55, 56
Miranda Pennell: You Made Me Love You
Ecstatic Melody (2023)
gewesen sein wird / will have been (2022)
False land (2021)
Cadence (2018)
You Made Me Love You (2005)
Alasdair Asmussen Doyle is based between Belfast and Brussels, he employs moving-image and filmic heritage to navigate multiple relations of physical places and films. Combining contemporary theories of landscape with early shooting instruments, he creates works that negotiate hybrid geographical positions. Drawing from an array of narratives that traverse both time and place, his installations and films render spaces as perpetually evolving and fragmented. This perspective is shaped by Alasdair's own experiences as an Australian inhabiting another island on the other side of the globe, and his work seeks to address potentialities of dislocation and duality. Alasdair’s work has been shown at Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg; The Serving Library, Liverpool; Leave of Absence (LOA), London; Galerie Martine Aboucaya, Paris; Meat Markets, Melbourne; Void Gallery, Northern Ireland; and undertaken residencies at An Lanntair, Outer Hebrides; the British School of Rome, Rome; La Cite des Arts, Paris and Popp’s Packing, Detroit. Alasdair has lectured at the Royal College of Art (London) and Belfast School of Art, and is currently completing a practice-based PhD at the Belfast School of Art, in partnership with aemi (Dublin).
Benedict Drew is based in Whitstable and Margate, he works across video, sculpture, drawing, painting, and music. Solo exhibitions include The Trickle-Down Syndrome, Whitechapel Gallery, London; KAPUT, QUAD, Derby; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; and THE ANTI ECSTATIC MACHINES and Heads May Roll, Matt’s Gallery, London. Drew’s work has been exhibited internationally including at Adelaide Festival, Australia; Lofoten International Arts Festival, Norway, Hayward Touring exhibitions, British Art Show 8 and Shonky: The Aesthetics of Awkwardness. He has been commissioned by Art on the Underground, London and Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea, and his work is included in important collections, including the Arts Council. Drew has performed in improvising ensembles, programmed concerts and club nights, and been a producer at the cultural charity London Musicians Collective. Drew often collaborates with other artists and musicians, and has released records on Mana Records and Kaleidoscope. He launched his own label; Thanet Tape Centre in 2020, and regularly makes work for radio. Benedict is a Lecturer in Fine Art at Slade School of Fine Art, University College London and is represented by Matt’s Gallery, London.
Melanie Manchot is a London based visual artist and filmmaker who works with photography, moving image and sound as a performative and participatory practice. Her projects often explore specific sites, public spaces or particular communities in order to locate notions of individual and collective identities. The mutability of subjectivity as well as the agency of the camera in creating a set of relations are key interests within Manchot’s investigation of personhood and its representations. Manchot’s work is included in important public and private collections, her work has been shown nationally and internationally including exhibitions at The Whitechapel Gallery, London; MacVal, Musee d’Art Contemporain, Paris; The Photographers Gallery, London; The Brooklyn Museum, New York; The Australian Museum of Photography, Sydney. Manchot has participated in a number of biennales, including The Venice Biennale in 2007 and The Istanbul Biennial in 2009. Her debut feature film: STEPHEN was exhibited at the Liverpool Biennial (2023) and premiered at Sheffield DocFest (2023). The installation STEPHEN is to tour nationally and the film will be released to cinemas by Modern Films in spring 2024.
Miranda Pennell is a London-based artist-filmmaker, her films emphasise the role of the imagination in the interpretation of historical documents, most recently drawing on genre-fiction as a way of engaging with troubled histories. After training as a dancer Miranda’s practice shifted from dance and live choreography to film direction, her films have focused on performance and choreography in everyday life, to more recently reflecting on the legacies of imperialism. Her award-winning films have been screened internationally in cinemas, galleries, TV and film festivals, including London, Rotterdam, Berlin, New York, and Vienna. Her work has recently been screened at Close-Up Film Centre, London (2023), Stuttgart FilmWinter Festival for Expanded Media (2019), Filmmuseum Munich (2017), Institut Français, Budapest (2017) and exhibited at Tabakalera Centre for Contemporary Culture , San Sebastian (2023), Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol (2022), New Museum for Art and Design, Nuremberg (2019) & Lahore Biennale 02 (2018).
Sasha Pirker is a visual artist and filmmaker who lives and works in Vienna. Her work frequently takes the process of filmic creation and perception as their theme. First and foremost, though, Pirker is interested in social issues. Sasha studied Linguistics in Vienna and Paris. Her work has been shown internationally at festivals, and exhibited in galleries and arts institutions; Schindler House (Los Angeles), MAK Museum of Applied Arts (Vienna), Kunstmuseum (Bonn), Museum of Modernism (Salzburg), Museum of Contemporary Art, Castilla y León (Spain), Kunsthaus (Graz), Chinati Foundation (Marfa, USA) and screened at Visions (Montréal), Mumok, Museum of Modern Art (Vienna), Breaking Ground: 60 Years of Austrian Experimental Cinema, 67th Film Festival (Venice), the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris) & Anthology Films Archive (New York) and a retrospective at the VIENNALE International Film Festival (Vienna). Sasha is a lecturer in film, video and art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and runs; Size Matters; a space for art and film in Vienna.
Dates: 2nd - 30th June 2023
A two person exhibition featuring artists:
Dorit Margreiter (Vienna) + Fay Nicolson (London)
in association with the London Festival of Architecture:
The Felicitous Encounter is Euca Annex’s inaugural exhibition, were Dorit Margreiter and Fay Nicolson bring together new, recent and unseen works, that explore the tensions between architecture and image, orientation and choreography, time and movement. In Euca Annex’s distinctive new space, visitors are invited to explore the site sensitive works by the artists, featuring sculpture, photography and painting.
The philosophers Hardt and Negri in asking what makes the ‘Commons visible, they coined the term The Felicitous Encounter, to describe a moment when individuals come together, to exchange knowledge and form something new. The essence of the encounter, they claim, is ‘the great wealth of a city’.
The Felicitous Encounter is Margreiter and Nicolson's first exhibition together. The work of both artists offers a direct dialogue with the space, from Margreiter's meticulous installational arrangement, which explores connections between representation and fiction, to Nicolson's site-sensitive painting, that channels the energy of performance and draws out synesthetic connections between sound, movement and image.
Dorit Margreiter is based in Vienna, with an artistic interest that correlates to the intricacies between visual systems, spatial structures, and the consequences that they hold for our everyday social lives and the ways we comprehend them. Margreiter explores relations between the physical and social dimensions of architecture, often creating time-based installations to augment and accentuate this relationship. Notable solo exhibitions include; Plečnik House Museum (Ljubljana, 2023), MUMOK (Vienna, 2019), MoMA (NYC, 2013), 53rd La Biennale di Venezia, (Venice, 2009). Dorit is a Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. www.doritmargreiter.net
Fay Nicolson lives and works in London, with a cross-disciplinary and site sensitive practice, the work cuts a dynamic line between performance and painting. As well as exhibiting internationally, Fay has performed as a solo artist, collaborator and performer. Recent Solo Shows include: Dithyramb, Quip and Curiosity, Cambridge (2023), SPA SONGS, Broadway Gallery, Letchworth (2019/20); Sound before Symbol, DKUK, London (2018); OVER AND OVER PURE FORM, Kunstraum, London (2016/17). Nicolson studied at the RCA and Central Saint Martins, has taught internationally and is a Lecturer at Kingston School of Art. www.faynicolson.com @fay_nicolson
Opening times: Wednesday to Sunday, 12–5pm
Location: EUCA Annex, 67 Havant road, London E173JE Nearest stations - Tube: Walthamstow Central. Overground: Wood Street Buses: 123, 212, W16, 55, 56
www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/2023-festival/