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Hanmi Gallery 25th IntermExhibition - Breathing Space 17/10 - 09/11/2013

25th Interim Exhibiton

Ines Tavares

Jennifer Kidd

Yingmei Duan

Matthew Bennington

Vasilis Asimakopoulos

Curated by Jennifer Kidd

Hanmi Gallery is pleased to announce the 25th Interim exhibition ‘Breathing Space’ by a

group of international artists responding to the above theme.

There are often times where we feel the need to switch off, do nothing, say nothing, go

nowhere and think of what we should do next. These are the moments that we need to

ourselves which we cannot do without and are the basic premises that found the neces-

sary space needed to reflect, think back and let the mind go blank. There is a sense of

quietness and serenity associated with these moments that can often be the springboard

of new ideas and projects in an artist’s practice. While this can be conducive to artistic pro-

duction, at the same time, this sense of inaction is somehow uncomfortable and we need

to produce and realize these new ideas.

The aim of this exhibition is to provide artists with this breathing space, a vacant place

where they can spend some time in or a place which can just serve as inspiration for a

new project. In a building that is silent with little distractions and no demands, this building

allows the artist’s the freedom to do something fresh.

From a variety of media such as installation, video, print, sculpture and drawing, the artist’s

reflect on moments that made them stop.

With an infinite influx of opportunities around us we manage somehow to become stuck,

we freeze, but moments of respite such as this allows us out of that corner and into a

clearing where everything is possible and nothing is out of reach. Our minds are clear and

we feel unburdened and, free from ourselves and our own expectations, we think of noth-

ing and sometimes nothing is enough!

Curated by Jennifer Kidd, the works in this exhibition give as sense of stillness and be-

come part of the visceral state of the space while allowing the visitor a view to a realm only

possible in the Hanmi Gallery’s current state.

Ines Tavares

Ines Tavares, Dummy, 2013, Site-specific installation drawings. Conté Crayon paper, 234x45cm

Ines Tavares, Inbetween, 2013, Silicone Rubber, 110x150x15cm

Ines Tavares, Uproot, 2013 , Silicone Rubber, 50x30x4cm

Jennifer Kidd

Jennifer Kidd, Everywhere and No One, 2013, Single Channel Video

Jennifer KiddEverywhere and No One, 2013Silicone, laser welded armaturecustom dressedanimatable puppet, Ed 1/1, 42 cm

Yingmei Duan

Yingmei Duan, Sleepless, 2007

Yingmei Duan,Talk to myself, Ed 1/7

Matthew Bennington

Matthew Benington, Forced Composition 1, 2013, Oil paint, Gouache, Varnish, Photocopy, Paper, 260x180cm

Matthew Benington, I Am Wound/Knife, 2013, Mirrored Perspex, LED’s, Met Edivdence Bag, Inkjet print, 30x39cm

Matthew Benington, Sill Life, 2013, Canon oce 260gsm on 3mm dibond, 140x60

Vasilis Asimakopoulos

Vasilis Asimakopoulos, Slate r3Zp, 2013, Print on denim, stainless steel, 220x140cm

Vasilis Asimakopoulos, Alykes L5c7, 2013, Print on denim, stainless steel, 220x140

Vasilis Asimakopoulos, Deep Track , 2013, Expanding foam, resin, marble dust, 200x130x100cm

Inês Tavares

Inês Tavares’ artistic practice is concerned with the problematics of representation of memory and history. She develops work across various media, in order to investigate the role, status and competence of the artistic object in conveying the past from a contemporary point of view. Additionally, she is interested in ex-amining the way memory binds itself to sites, by positioning the pieces in relation with the space where its is contained and the viewer. By testing the boundaries of a medium, she attempts to draw a parallel between the representation of a fragment, which presupposes the loss of something ungraspable, and the selective processes of memory itself, while reflecting on the helplessness of the idea of accurate, total representation.

Inês Tavares was born in Lisbon, Portugal and currently lives in London, United Kingdom. She holds a BA in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Art of the University of Lisbon and a MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Mar-tins College of Art and Design. After finishing her BA, she received a studio grant in Lisbon for the duration of one year and has participated in several group shows in Portugal and London, namely at Fundação Marquês de Pombal, Mall Galleries and V22.

Jennifer Kidd

Jennifer Kidd graduated in BA Fine Art from the Dublin Institute of Technology, and has participated in a num-ber of group shows as well as solo exhibitions in 2007 at Film Base in Dublin and in 2012 at Great Western Studios Gallery in London. In 2007 she won the Best In Show Award at the Digital Hub in Dublin. Jennifer Kidd’s work is centered around the idea of social networking.

Yingmei DuanYingmei Duan’s performative concepts convey visions between dream and reality, personal fears and de-sires. Focusing on cultural backgrounds, social constraints and social relationships the performances raise a variety of questions, without giving a definitive answer.Her work is experimental and site-specific. The artist often realizes her performances in found places in in-door and outdoor space or creates spatial situations that seems necessary for her work. The temporal exten-sion, spontaneity, and the inclusion of the audience play an important role. To create a close connection to everyday life, Duan loves to work together with people of different cultures, ages and from different areas of life.The materials used by her are objects of our familiar surroundings: she builds her installations of paper, gar-bage, furniture, etc. The artist works with her own body as a means of expression. In vivid images unusual connections are established between the things: sometimes ironic, sometimes tragic, or even mystical. By the use of noise and light intense atmospheres and moods are created.

Yingmei Duan worked as a painter in Beijing before moving to Germany in 1998, where she studied at the HBK Braunschweig from 2000 to 2004. As a performance artist, she has been involved in numerous national and international exhibitions, festivals and workshops since that time. Yingmei Duan has made her name in numerous national and international exhibitions, festivals, residencies, lectures and workshops through her remarkable, thought provoking and emotional performance art.

Matthew BenningtonMatthew Benington’s practice establishes materials and locations embodying the violence of discourse, here he can manipulate tools suggestive of dialogue. In this way he intends to establish redemptive rituals and tools resonating with broader cultural patterns of behavior. Retrospective archaeology; being by being seen, implies insecurities with acting in the present, anticipating an imminent disaster where we will be swept up leaving only images. The artist believes that photography can help bring people back to Nature unromanti-cally. Images as forms must slip from the objects, people and places they refer to. Moving away from ritual-istic investments) towards alienated testimonies of a gone world. In this way they discuss the imminence of the present (THE NEED TO ACT NOW); mortality, which the buffering of the ‘mass ornament’ of nature, as interpreted by Albert Speer and Leni Riefenstahl, and the incessant deluge of images fails to convey.

Matthew Benington graduated from BA Fine Art, University College Falmouth and Royal College of Art MA Printmaking in 2012. He has taken part in a number of group shows as well as a 2011 solo exhibition at The Little Gallery in Calgary, Canada. He was shortlisted semifinalist for the Midas Contemporary Art Award in 2010 as well as winning the Harry Walker RWA Memorial Young Artist Prize in 2009.

Vasilis Asimakopoulos

Vasilis Asimakopoulos’ work explores man’s enquiry into social and political events, by creating platforms and avenues that range from the use of technology to cultural media. Although major concerns and phenomena act as a starting point, his work focuses on the impact of the everyday, history and culture. Thus, ecological disaster, the financial crisis or nuclear war are transfused ironically with elements such as sci-fi films, every-day decadence and pure stupidity in order to present new possibilities and frontiers for our understanding of the world. An understanding that in many ways is connected with a carefree stripping of established systems and dogmas and their manipulation, so as to size down important ideas and issues to the equivalent of a laughable fable.

His latest body of work creates a feeling of investigation, dissection and eventual distortion of traditional western art as a symbol of western ideals and ethos, winking in a sense at the financial and social tribula-tions in the western world.

Asimakopoulos graduated in 2011 with an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, and currently lives and works in London. He has participated in a number of group exhibitions, as well as two solo exhibitions in 2010 in Leeds and 2011 in Paris. His other achievements include the winner of the Mostyn Open Award 2011, as well as being shortlisted for the Conran Prize 2011. Asimakopoulos was also awarded an RBS Bur-sary Award from the Royal British Society of Sculptors.

London

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Seoul

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Image credit by joseph asghar