41,765 research outputs found
Morris in Jaipur: The Work of Art in the Context of Hand-made Reproduction
No full textDavid Mabb: Morris in Jaipur. The Work of Art in the Context of Hand-made Reproduction.
A collaborative project between David Mabb, Nature Morte and Anokhi, supported by the British Council, originally made for the 2005 Jaipur Heritage International Festival.
The Queens Gallery, British Council,
17 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delh, 110001 India
Tel: (91-11) 2371 1401
www.britishcouncil.org.in
You are invited to the private view on 18th March between 6:30 and 8:00 p.m.
The exhibition continues from 19th March to 8th April, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily (except Sundays and holidays).
David Mabb has been working with the textile and wallpaper designs of 19th Century English interior designer, writer and activist William Morris for about eight years. Mabb’s interest in Morris and his designs stems from the social and political implications of Morris’ work, the continued relevancy of Morris’ politics and the continuing market for Morris’ designs. Many of Mabb’s interpretations or reconfigurations of Morris’ designs have foregrounded the relationship between Morris’ own utopian thinking and other enlightened forms of cultural production. Most recently, Mabb has organised an exhibition of Morris’ work for the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, UK.
On the invitation of Peter Nagy, the director of Gallery Nature Morte in New Delhi, Mabb visited Jaipur in order to devise a project that could be featured as part of the annual Jaipur Heritage International Festival. Intrigued by both the on-going traditions of craftsmanship found in Rajasthan and the similarities between the block-printed fabric designs found in Jaipur and the designs of Morris, Mabb proposed an exhibition, which combines a number of different art forms.
Rajendra Sharma, a Jaipur miniature painter whose education has predominantly focused on the art of copying, has painted a small retrospective of David Mabb’s paintings, which use William Morris fabrics as their beginnings. Sharma was given eight digital prints selected from different groups of Mabb’s large paintings. In one group of works Mabb has painted out elements of William Morris’ patterns, in another he has painted industrial images around Morris’ patterns and in a third he has painted images of Russian peasants around the patterns. The miniature paintings are shown in beaten and patterned tin frames commissioned in Jaipur.
Mabb has also simplified and adapted three William Morris designs. They have been woodblock printed onto khadi, in collaboration with the Jaipur textile firm Anokhi and have been used to make three groups of artworks. Firstly, a Sherwani Suit, a sari and a salwar-kameez made from the fabrics are shown on mannequins in the exhibition. They are also modelled by Mabb and his associates in black and white photographs shot in the Mandawa Haveli, Jaipur. Secondly the block-printed fabrics have been over-painted by a Jaipur sign painter with interpretations of fabric designs by the Russian artist and designer from the 1920s, Luibov Popova. Thirdly, two quilts have been designed from the same block-printed textiles using traditional techniques.
David Mabb is an artist who lives and works in London. Recent exhibitions include: The Decorating Business, Oakville Galleries, Ontario 2000; The Hall of the Modern, The Economist, London; A Factory As It Might Be or The Hall Of Flowers, Art Gallery of Windsor, Ontario, 2003; "Ministering to the Swinish Luxury of the Rich", Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 2004.
A catalogue documenting the exhibition and its multiple elements has been produced by Nature Morte for the exhibition at the Queens Gallery, The British Council, New Dehli. The catalogue utilises the fabric printed by Anokhi for the project to make the cover, recalling a typical Rajasthani accounts book
David Mabb in conversation with Morgan Quaintance
No full textFor this event, David Mabb discussed his Focal Point Gallery exhibition with the London-based writer, musician, broadcaster and curator Morgan Quaintance
About Two Worlds
No full textDavid Mabb, 'About Two Worlds', 2015, acrylic paint, varnish, pencil, facsimiles of El Lissitzky’s 'About Two Squares' and William Morris’ Kelmscott Press 'The Wood Beyond the World' mounted on linen. Painting 1 (the Maid), 100 x 155 cm, Paintings 2-15, 80 x 70 cm. Photography: Peter White.
Mabb presents a work in two parts. In the first part, pages from a facsimile edition of William Morris’ Kelmscott edition of his late romance 'The Wood Beyond the World' has been overlaid with enlarged recreations of pages from Russian artist El Lissitzky’s acclaimed book 'About Two Squares'. In contrast, in the second part, Mabb has also overlaid Edward Burne Jones’ illustration of the Maid from 'The Wood Beyond the World' onto a facsimile edition of 'About Two Squares'.
Morris and Lissitzky both used their art to promote their socialist politics. Yet, whilst Morris saw beauty in the past, wanting to elevate Victorian society from the ugliness imposed by industrial manufacturing, for Lissitzky, the Russian revolution and the rapid advancement of science and technology meant the old world was no longer recognisable. He sought an entirely new visual language that could express the socialist world he believed he was helping to construct. Mabb draws our attention to the different directions of Morris and Lissitzky’s influences. Although on the surface they become collaborators, their designs remain distinct, never able to fully merge or separate
Art and Appropriation – when does artistic freedom become copyright infringement?
No full textArt and Appropriation – when does artistic freedom become copyright infringement?
Artist David Mabb considers works in his practice, including a run-in with Magnum Photos and appropriating the work of William Morris
David Mabb & Henrik Schrat
No full textDavid Mabb and Henrik Schrat have explored their joint interest in and critique of utopian and dystopian thought through dialogues between the works in the exhibition. The artists have used two books as a departure point: William Morris’ Wood beyond the World, 1892, and Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, 1977. William Morris was a 19th Century English designer, writer and communist whose wallpaper and fabric designs are still widely distributed today. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky were Russian science fiction writers who collaborated on novels which were widely read during the Soviet period in Russia and eastern Europe. Andrei Tarkovsky made Roadside Picnic into the film Stalker in 1979. Rather than constructing a new utopia, this exhibition explores the historical utopian and dystopian imaginary, with an emphasis on various types of Communism (utopian Communism, vanguardist Communism, the Communist avant-garde and "Communism" from 1945-89 in Eastern Europe).
In the front room of the gallery, pages from two William Morris Kelmscott Press facsimiles of Morris’ late romance fantasy narrative Wood beyond the World are glued to the wall in a frieze (Mabb) that intersects with Schrat’s sculptural Memorial to Boris Strugatsky, who died in November 2012. Also intersecting with the frieze is a mural (Schrat) that makes use of some
imagery from the Morris Kelmscott book to illustrates scenes from the “zone” in Roadside Picnic where extraterrestrials have landed and have changed everything. Both are lit by the glowing neon Red Rocket (Mabb) that reworks Dan Flavin’s monuments to V. Tatlin.
In the back room of the gallery, the song Der Rote Wedding, a Communist fighting anthem from the 1920s, is performed by the Commandantes, 2006, to form the soundtrack to Mabb’s video A closer look at the life and work of William Morris (Red Wedding version) which takes Morris’ flower patterns down to the square form of the pixel and back again. Its projection is interruped by hanging, drooping cut outs of a William Morris pattern (Schrat)
David Mabb discussing William Morris and the Constructivists. What went wrong?
No full textDavid Mabb has recently discovered through extensive research of newly opened up archives in Kelmscott and Moscow, that William Morris, Kasimir Malevich and the Constructivists secretly developed an extensive collaborative body of work that has until recently remained completely hidden from public view. In his presentation Mabb examines some of the many paintings, videos and photographs that make up this collection. He will explain his own role in their discovery, mount a critique of the works’ limitations and suggest some possibilities for what the artists might have been trying to achieve
David Mabb: Interview with Brainard Carey
No full textDavid Mabb is a British artist who works with appropriated imagery to rethink the political implications of different aesthetic forms in modern art and design history. Recent work has focussed on the designs of 19th Century English interior designer, writer and socialist William Morris. Mabb’s interest in Morris stems from the social and political connotations of Morris’ work, the continued relevancy of Morris’ politics and the continuing market for Morris’ designs. Mabb’s interpretations or reconfigurations of Morris’ designs consider the relationship between Morris’ own thinking and other forms of cultural productio
David Mabb, William Morris. Ministering to the Swinish Luxuary of the Rich
No full textCatalogue for Whitworth Art Gallery exhibtion William Morris ‘Ministering to the Swinish Luxuary of the Rich’ curated by David Mabb. Includes The Colonisation of Utopia by Steve Edwards; William Morris: 'Ministering to the Swinish Luxuary of the Rich' by David Mabb and Four Walls: Morris and Ornament by Caroline Arscott
Mabb: Art into Everday Life
No full textCatalogue produced for solo exhibition at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Vilnius, Lithuania. Includes essays by David Mabb, Art into Everyday Life; Lolita Jablonskiene, A Brief History of the "Art into Everyday Life" Movement and Simon Rees, Fraying at the Edges: Carpets and Paintings by David Mabb. Published in Lithuanian and English
David Mabb
No full textCatalogue for the "Sidewinder", Centre of International Modern Art Gallery, Kolkata 2002/01/15-2002/02/09 Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre,New Delhi 2002/03/11-2002/03/20 Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Mumbai 2002/04/09-2002/04/16, 1/15/2002 - 4/16/2002. [Show/Exhibition]
Introduction by Gerard Hemsworth. Texts by Suhail Malik, Peter Nagy, Alka Pande, Renate Dohmen, R. Siva Kumar, Ranjit Hoskote, Moco Keptnency, Steve Edwards, Aveek Sen, Louisa Buck, David Brown, John Slyce, Lewis Biggs
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