Charles Mason :
intervention
Campo Sant’ Agnese, Venice
For the six months of the Biennale, Campo Sant’ Agnese, one of Venice ’s beautiful squares close to the Accademia, will host intervention, a new work by Charles Mason which alludes to recent political world events and to the historical nationalism of the Biennale itself.
The installation sited on some existing fencing consists of two structures resembling large advertising billboards, each measuring two and a half by five meters. Displaying a camouflaged pattern and military in appearance, the boards have undergone a long process of construction. The two structures – one using light birch the other a dark hardwood plywood – have been jig-sawed into pieces, following a camouflage template derived from the NATO ‘Italian forest’ design, the pieces have been interchanged and then inserted, one against the other to re-form two complete apparently functioning billboards.
The ambiguous sculpture seems to resemble advertising space, but displays only the mechanism of its own construction.The camouflage turns out to be neither disguise, nor application but constitutes the product of exchange and the merging of identities.
Mason effects simple transformations on everyday materials to open up unexpected narratives that explore and test the structures which they inhabit, and by extension, allude to the structures that control and confine daily life. He draws upon various every-day objects and structures that are usually recognised and defined by a proper form and a proper use. These objects, often in pairs, are taken apart (either literally or figuratively) and reassembled and reconfigured in various ways. As in the case of intervention, material changes are made that re-form the relationship of the object to itself and the object to the viewer
intervention Campo Sant’ Agnese, Venice presented by:
Nuova Icona and
Vincenzo Casali Studio Venezia in collaboration with
Galerie Cortex Athletico For further information and photographs contact:
Galerie Cortex Athletico Telephone: +33 (0) 556 94 31 89 info@cortexathletico.com