Yes, there is death in this business of whaling – a speechlessly quick chaotic bundling of a man into Eternity. But what then? Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death. Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance. Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air. Methinks my body is but the lees of my better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is not me. And therefore three cheers for Nantucket; and come a stove boat and stove body when they will, for stave my soul, Jove himself cannot.
–Herman Melville / Moby Dick
Today is February 21, 2020. There is sublimation with the passing of time. According to the world, Brexit happened (sorta); Trump was impeached (kinda); The doomsdayers and the deniers meet at the table to discuss the future of the world (maybe).
On this day, February 21, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto in London (1848). Today is the birthday of Nina Simone (Eunice Waymon), singer and American civil rights activist (1933), and the anniversary of the death of artist Kenneth Rowntree (1997).
Welcome to the 112th edition of Prescriptions. Here is our review of the week in the arts.
Ebbe Stub Wittrup
Botanical Drift / Ebbe Stub Wittrup
As Ebbe Stub Wittrup follows in the footsteps of the Danish botanist Nathaniel Wallich, a narrative emerges on Western economy and scientific logic as opposed to local knowledge and experience. At Copenhagen Contemporary through May 17, 2020.
Joanna Piotrowska
Joanna Piotrowska
The tension is triggered in Joanna Piotrowska’s work by the reversibility of the situations, gestures and actions staged, the suspended moment of an encounter between two realities, condensed into images that are never univocal. On view through March 7, 2020 at Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon.
Katy Moran
Katy Moran / Recent Paintings
Recently described as an “abstract painter of figurative mood,” Katy Moran enlists a wide scope of mark-making to conjure different atmospheres in each painting, every chosen surface being readymade. Just closed, February 19, 2020, at Modern Art, London.
Julian Charrière
Towards No Earthly Pole / Julian Charriere
Filmed at night, the dazzling landscapes captured by Julian Charrière are dramatically lit by a spotlight carried on a drone; as light tracks across the dark terrain, incredible shapes and tonalities are revealed. On view through March 21, 2020 at Sean Kelly Gallery, New York.
Otto Freundlich
Reading Time in Space
This exhibit, spanning Modernism at mumok 1910 to 1955, traces passages of time and artistic concepts, accounting the idea of an expanded concept of art, one that relies on connection and permeation beyond a traditional chronological order. Through April 13, 2020 at mumok, Vienna.
Kara Chin
Asikainen, Chin, and Houghton
BALTIC 39 is proud to present three solo exhibitions with artists Henna Asikainen, Kara Chin, and Ben Jeans Houghton. In the Project Space, BALTIC 39, Newcastle upon Tyne. Through April 26, 2020 / BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, BALTIC 39, Newcastle, England.
Ebbe Stub Wittrup
PROFILES
Ben Jeans Houghton, among the three solo exhibitions, Asikainen, Chin, and Houghton, at BALTIC’s BALTIC 39; Katy Moran who enlists a wide scope of mark-making in Recent Paintings at Modern Art, London; Julian Charrière’s dramatic film and photography in Towards No Earthly Pole at Sean Kelly Gallery, New York; Joanna Piotrowska’s exhibition of work of gestures and actions staged in images at Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon; and Ebbe Stub Wittrup who weaves a narrative of Western economy and scientific logic in Botanical Drift at Copenhagen Contemporary.
