Marnie Slater: A Very Large Triangle
8 NOVEMBER 2014 — 22 NOVEMBER, 2014
A Very Large Triangle provides conceptually layered and poetic musings upon the places in which we drift, the selves we come to create and the art we are driven to love. A Very Large Triangle is a new solo exhibition by 2004 graduate artist Marnie Slater in celebration of the 10 year anniversary of the programme.
Massey University School of Fine Arts presents A Very Large Triangle, a new solo exhibition by 2004 graduate artist Marnie Slater in celebration of the 10 year anniversary of the programme. The exhibition features a substantial component of Slater’s latest body of work focussing on the romantic and collaborative relationship between early twentieth-century French surrealist artists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore (aka Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe). This multilayered exhibition explores how artistic practice is often suspended in a delicate web of interpersonal relationships and crafted at the intersection of place, time, mobility and memory.
The weeklong exhibition coincides with Slater’s synchronous journey from her current residence in Brussels to the island of Jersey (located just off the coast of France) to visit the archive of Cahun and Moore. At the Engine Room, Slater has remotely installed a range of items that provide links and slippages which parallel her own journey and those significant of the intimate creative partnership she is tracing. This includes the shadows of handmade clothing dedicated to Cahun and Moore’s elaborately staged self-portrait photographs, clothing that Slater will be wearing to the Jersey archive.
Many other subtle and nuanced connections that traverse the spatiotemporal divide can be found. A wall painting replicates a photo that captured Cahun and Moore’s view from their Jersey home—a view that could easily be confused for a Wellington landscape. Look for a light that emanates from the Engine Room at night. This illumination correlates to the daylight hours of Jersey. Also, ask about a unique hand-held device. This device has been commissioned from artist Clare Noonan to enable a specific optical experience of the exhibition. A Very Large Triangle provides conceptually layered and poetic musings upon the places in which we drift, the selves we come to create and the art we are driven to love.
Marnie Slater (b. 1980 in Wellington) is an artist and writer who lives in Brussels. Alongside her solo practice, Marnie is one fourth of the artist collaboration All the Cunning Stunts, a slice of the online exhibition space Buenos Tiempos, Int., and an occasional editor of books.
Clare Noonan (b. 1982 in Christchurch) works with a variety of media including photography, sculpture and video. Clare recently graduated from HISK, Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. She is a member of the collaboration All the Cunning Stunts. Clare currently lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.