How we perceive ourselves is deeply interwoven with our experience of interactions with others. Self-perception is always based on a reflection vis-à-vis another person. Ever/Repair is the collaboration of two artists who have found each other and mutually taken risks: over many years, Isabel Lewis and Dirk Bell have each individually created independent and unconventional bodies of work, which they now combine both as within their personal relationship and in their exhibition at HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark.
The title Ever/Repair plays with language insofar as it makes use of metaphors in order to approach new levels in terms of subject matter. Alongside the meaning of “always/reparation,” the title also refers to an onomatopoetic conflation of the two words every and pair. The entanglement of the words is a symbol of the two individuals now intertwined as if in a ballroom dance. In his artistic practice Bell creates impressive works of highly technical and often, fantastical quality and for this exhibition a performance setting, wherein Lewis conceives a sound piece and performance, dealing with the Jamaican performance tradition of Junkanoo and questions of role reversal, identity and order and based on the play Maskarade (1970) by Jamaican author Sylvia Wynter. In collaboration with the two artists, the British vocalist, performer and artist Rupert Enticknap and performer and pole dancer Yann Slattery will alter the newly adapted piece in relation to the in-situ exhibition, by playing and interacting with it.
The exhibition at HALLE FÜR KUNST draws on a performance from 2022, for which Lewis and Bell worked together to develop the stage design. Ever since, they have collaborated on various occasions. In their joint practice, the artist couple is concerned with the creation of spaces enabling an all-encompassing sensual experience and an exchange between individuals. For this reason, and in particular reference to the works produced for this exhibition, they speak about hosting, and hosted situations or occasions. In this vein, hosting should not be understood as moralizing care, but in terms of the practices and policies of an empathetic care. Their work, while contingent, situational and adaptable to specific situations, always alludes to the European understanding of theater predominant since the era of the Baroque.
Ever/Repair: Isabel Lewis, Dirk Bell
Jun 22 – Sep 1, 2024
Halle Für Kunst Steiermark
Graz, Austria
