SIMON STARLING

EXHIBITION PROGRAM 2001

Main Room, Gallery
May 4 – June 24, 2001



Simon Starling: Inverted Retrograde Theme. Secession 2001


The British artist Simon Starling refers to objects or individuals in his projects, which embody the possibilities and ideas of Modernism. Based on extensive research, he elucidates the meaning of the vocabulary of Modernism, as well as the structures, on which this myth is based. By transforming auratically charged objects, reconstructing them or transferring them to different contexts and materials, he questions their original intentions and conditions. In this, unlike the avant-garde that focused on a break with history, his new definitions stress the continuation of history and its variations.
  


Simon Starling, Inverted Retrograde Theme, Secession 2001


In the installation "Inverted Retrograde Theme", which creates a space within the main room of the Secession, Simon Starling reflects on the ideas of twelve-tone music developed by the composer Arnold Schönberg, born in 1874 in Vienna.
 


Simon Starling, Inverted Retrograde Theme, Secession 2001


As in previous projects in Berlin with Otto Lillienthal and in Ljubljana with Joze Plecnik, Simon Starling has chosen Arnold Schönberg as one of the outstanding pioneers of Modernism as the starting point for his artistic exploration. In "Inverted Retrograde Theme", the structure of Arnold Schönberg's twelve-tone music is related to the modernist architecture of the exhibition space and the way in which a piano is constructed. Aspects of mirroring, inversion and translocation, which are characteristic for twelve-tone music, are transferred to the installation to spark a new, contemporary view of modernism and its inherent visionary potential.



Simon Starling, Inverted Retrograde Theme, Secession 2001


Twelve rows of neon tubes, one disassembled grand piano and one whole one are the functional components of this work. The fluorescent lights that are normally part of the central ceiling construction of the Main Room of the Secession, are dismounted and lowered into the room below. Onto these relocated neon tubes is transcribed a simple Schönberg'ian twelve-tone composition - a kind of visual score - controlled by time switches, the tubes flicker in four different constellations across the space. This newly defined space created with the lighting system has the rough character of a production workshop and contradicts the white cube of the exhibition space. There are two 19th century grand pianos in the improvised workshop, one of which Starling has taken apart and then rebuilt in reverse. All of its newly altered components are ranged out across the space. A new inverted rough-cast copy of the piano's cast-iron frame is there, with the two halves of the casting box that was used to form it. Along with these are the corresponding inverted piano body, wooden sound board and piano lid. In combination, a vision of grand piano constructed in mirror image may be recognized, the high notes becoming the low notes and vice versa. In this way, Simon Starling transfers the stringent organizational system of twelve-tone music to the architecture of the piano, forcing a radical musical structure to collide with a traditional instrument.



Simon Starling, Inverted Retrograde Theme, Secession 2001


Playing with contextual shifts also characterizes Starling's project "Rescued Rhododendrons", in which a historical development is reversed, and which Simon Starling shows as a video installation in the gallery of the Secession. The video work deals with returning the plant "Rhododendron ponticum" to its original site. Imported from the south of Spain to the north of Scotland in the mid-18th century, it is considered a weed there today. In the course of an announcement for a sculpture project in the
Scottish landscape, Simon Starling learned that the rhododendrons were to be uprooted and destroyed, so that they would not alter the original heathland ecosystem. Starling counteracted this plan and set out with the plants - in a red Volvo 240 Estate as transportation - on a rescue mission to return them to their original homeland.



Simon Starling, Rescued Rhododendrons, 2000, Filmstill



PUBLICATION
The exhibition catalogue will contain a text by Jeremy Millar, as well as text and picture documents, which Starling compiled in the course of his research for "Inverted Retrograde Theme."

SIMON STARLING 40 pages, 10 colored illustrations, 14 b/w illustrations authors: Matthias Herrmann, Jeremy Millar Secession 2001, ISBN 3-901926-34-8 ___________________ Available in the shop

BIOGRAPHY
Simon Starling, born 1967 in Epsom, England. Exhibitions and projects (selected): 2001) neugerriemschneider, Berlin; (2000) Studio 2000, Cologne; Camden Arts Center, London; Manifesta 3, Ljubljana; Serralves Foundation, Porto; The British Art Show, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Micropolitiques, Le Magasin, Grenoble; (1999) Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig; (1998) Moderna Museet Project Room, Stockholm


EXHIBITION DISCUSSION
in conjunction with the exhibition, Jeremy Millar will conduct a discussion with Simon Starling on Friday, May 4, 2001 at 6:30 p.m.

JEREMY MILLAR, artist and curator, lives in Whitstable, England. Articles published in numerous international periodicals and catalogues; curatorial work includes: (2000) Boris Mikhailov, (1999) Blue Suburban Skies, MayDay, (1998) Speed, (1997) Airport, The Photographers' Gallery, London.


Photos by Simon Starling


We would like to thank the following companies for their support:
 
Erste Bank - Partner of the Secession
GlaxoSmithKline - Sponsor of the Secession
The British Council
L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik Gmbh
Bundeskanzleramt Kunst
Wien Kultur
Friends of the Secession


 

EXHIBITION PROGRAM 2001

For further information and photographic material please contact:
 
Urte Schmitt-Ulms
Secession, Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession
Friedrichstraße 12, 1010 Vienna
Tel: +43-1-5875307-21, Fax: +43-1-5875307-34
presse@secession.at