Rob Tufnell, 83 Page Street, London, SW1P 4HA
30th November – 9th December 2012, Friday – Sunday: 12-6pm
http://www.robtufnell.com
David Austen ‘the Gorgon’s Dream’
30 November – 9 December Rob Tufnell presents a new short film by David Austen.
Widely exhibited as a painter, David Austen has in recent years broadened his practice and made a series of black and white, films that draw upon the language of early cinema and absurdist theatre.
‘The Gorgon’s Dream’, 2012 was inspired by a 16th century bronze Mannerist study by Benuvenuto Cellini held in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. This sculpture depicts the severed head of the mythical snake haired Medusa suspended from the clenched fist of Perseus. The work is a model for Cellini’s ‘Perseus with the head of the Medusa’ found in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence.
Reimagined by Austen using actors and 16 mm film stock the work consciously recalls a Lee Miller photograph of a woman grasping the back of her coiffed head of hair.
First presented by Ingleby Gallery within the Burns Monument for the 66th Edinburgh International Film Festival, June 2012, the film returns from this cave like structure in the self proclaimed Athens of the North, to find a second home in the gallery – one of Edwin Lutyens’ Neoclassical pavilions in Westminster.
Born in Harlow, Essex in 1960 Austen studied at Maidstone College of Art and at the Royal College of Art. He has held solo exhibitions of his work at the Serpentine Gallery, London (1987), Arnolfini, Bristol (1988), the Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Nottingham (1989), Cornerhouse, Manchester (1992), Mead Gallery, Warwick (1997), Inverleith House, Edinburgh (1998), PEER, London (2004), Wimbledon School of Art, London (2005), Camden Arts Centre, London (2006), Milton Keynes Gallery (2007), Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames (2010) and Modern Art Oxford (2010). Recent group exhibitions include: Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2008), Tate Britain, London (2011), Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (2008 and 2011). He is represented by Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh and Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London.
Please note that the exhibition is open 12 – 6pm, Friday, Saturday and Sunday for two weeks only. An artist’s book published by LemonMelon and poster will accompany the film. For further information please contact mail@robtufnell.com
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