Charles Avery
a spirit of philosophical enquiry
The Islanders: An Introduction was the latest instalment in Scottish artist Charles Avery's epic project which began in 2004. For the first time, the whole project thus far was brought together including several new works. Avery has created texts, drawings, installations and sculptures which describe the topology and cosmology of an imaginary island, whose every feature embodies a philosophical proposition, problem or solution. Imbued with a formal beauty, humour, and a spirit of philosophical enquiry, these vivid and intricate works invite the viewer to recreate the Island in their own minds, and to use it as an arena for exploring philosophical conundrums and paradoxes.
Frieze Review
@ The Guardian
Ridables and Unridables
It is often a source of confusion to visitors as to why the Ridables and Unridables are thus named, for ostensibly it is the Unridables who appear better adapted to supporting the weight of a person, given their much greater stature; it is not their physique but rather their temperament that would not support being ridden.
If you try to milk a Ridable you will lose your arm. To describe them as ridable is misleading for there is a great deal of whispering to be done before one can even get near such an animal, let alone hope to get on its back.
- Charles Avery.
' Avery was thrown out of Central St Martins after just six months, and the 35-year-old has spent the ensuing decade creating an imaginary island. Some have praised The Islanders, with its made-up maps, sketches of imaginary creatures and explorer's "notes", as a return to storytelling in art and a witty dissection of utopian tropes, while others dismiss his life's work as twee whimsy or sci-fi geekiness. Either way, it's hard to fault the dedication of the one-time Isle of Mull resident.'
@THE INDEPENDENT
The Islanders: An Introduction was the latest instalment in Scottish artist Charles Avery's epic project which began in 2004. For the first time, the whole project thus far was brought together including several new works. Avery has created texts, drawings, installations and sculptures which describe the topology and cosmology of an imaginary island, whose every feature embodies a philosophical proposition, problem or solution. Imbued with a formal beauty, humour, and a spirit of philosophical enquiry, these vivid and intricate works invite the viewer to recreate the Island in their own minds, and to use it as an arena for exploring philosophical conundrums and paradoxes.
Frieze Review
@ The Guardian
Ridables and Unridables
It is often a source of confusion to visitors as to why the Ridables and Unridables are thus named, for ostensibly it is the Unridables who appear better adapted to supporting the weight of a person, given their much greater stature; it is not their physique but rather their temperament that would not support being ridden.
If you try to milk a Ridable you will lose your arm. To describe them as ridable is misleading for there is a great deal of whispering to be done before one can even get near such an animal, let alone hope to get on its back.
- Charles Avery.
' Avery was thrown out of Central St Martins after just six months, and the 35-year-old has spent the ensuing decade creating an imaginary island. Some have praised The Islanders, with its made-up maps, sketches of imaginary creatures and explorer's "notes", as a return to storytelling in art and a witty dissection of utopian tropes, while others dismiss his life's work as twee whimsy or sci-fi geekiness. Either way, it's hard to fault the dedication of the one-time Isle of Mull resident.'
@THE INDEPENDENT
Ben Rivers
Origin of the Species
The Hyrcynium Wood
House
SLOW ACTION
From his ICA Page:
Rivers’ films focus on lives led at one remove from society, commenting on the desire to achieve liberty through the simplification of lifestyle.
The films of Ben Rivers (born Somerset, 1972, lives in London) are rich, cinematic portraits that explore wilderness environments and self-contained worlds, representing memory through visual fragments. Primarily shot on 16mm black and white film, sometimes on out-of-date stock, Rivers' work has the appearance of ageing, archival footage. The artist shoots on an old Bolex wind-up camera, and works creatively within its limitations – including contraints of duration, since its the longest continuous shot is 30 seconds. The aged appearance of the film is also partly a consequence of Rivers hand-processing each film in his own kitchen sink. He compares the creation of his films to assembling a collage, and although he places great emphasis on the editing process, he is in fact strongly involved in all stage of his films' creation, through his roles as cameraman, developer, editor and director. The distanced quality of Rivers work – albeit a knowing construction – extends to the spaces and subjects that the films focus on. Whether exposing desolate and crumbling interiors in works like Old Dark House (2003) and its sequel House (2005), or portraying the hermetic world of the 'outsider' figure Jake Williams in the much acclaimed This is My Land (2006), Rivers' work is engaged with zones at the edges of contemporary life. Other works, such as Ah Liberty! (2008) which depicts a community inhabiting a rural and seemingly sublime landscape, appear to exist outside modern living altogether, signifying less alienation from the mainstream than liberation from it. Although they depict real-life subjects, Rivers' films are not primarily documentary or ethnographic in style, despite drawing heavily on these genres. Rather, his work is personal and fragmented, reminiscent of the idiosyncratic styles of Scottish filmmaker and poet Margaret Tait and American director George Kuchar. Other influences – perhaps less apparent in Rivers' imagery than in his soundtracks – are as wide-ranging as thriller, film noir and horror. This range of sources reflects Rivers' work at Brighton Cinematheque, where he has helped run a regular screening programme since 1996, one that includes both recent and historical work. Rivers is presenting a special screening programme for Nought to Sixty, drawing on his experience at Brighton Cinematheque. The artist is showing his own work alongside that of other recent filmmakers, in an attempt to highlight different strategies for dealing with the histories of documentary and ethnographic film. Emphasising diverse and creative approaches to history is fundamental to the project, as is an attempt to establish a common language that lies between the confines of these problematic genres.
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