Jimmie Durham, Building a Nation , 2006
Jimmie Durham, Building a Nation , 2006
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Jimmie Durham first showed at Matt’s Gallery in 1988.
Almost twenty years on, Durham will return to the Gallery this Autumn
to present a series of intimate performance events leading to a large-scale sculptural installation.
Jimmie Durham has described the role of the artist as one who rearranges objects that exist in society. In Building a Nation, Durham will construct an installation using natural and manufactured materials combining wood, laminates, glass and metal. Quotations selected by Durham from famous Americans about American Indians will be interspersed around the structure.
Each week during the installation, Durham will make a performance / presentation as he is working, revealing the progress of the structure and sharing ideas. These presentations will be conducted by Durham in the interchangeable guises of carpenter, craftsman and teacher.
Since moving to Europe from Mexico in 1994, Durham has concentrated on the problems of belief and monumentalism in art and has worked against architecture. Durham has said, ‘Now we can begin, it seems to me, to be more seriously confused, to be more profoundly confused than we were before, especially if we can make a final break within the heroic project of art and architecture.’
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Born 1940, USA. Lives and works in Berlin. Early 1960’s active in theatre, performance and literature in the US civil rights movement. 1973-1980 Political organiser in the American Indian Movement. Studied Ecole des Beaux Arts, Geneva, Switzerland Solo Exhibitions include 2006 QUAUHNAHUAC, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel; Glass, Christine König Gallery, Vienna 2005 Particle/Wave Theory #2, (Knew Urk) Reg Vardy Gallery, University of Sunderland with Banff Centre, Canada; From the West Pacific to the East Atlantic, GeM Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Den Haag 2000 Jimmie Durham, Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm; Stoneheart, Centre for Contemporary Art, CCA Kitakyushu 1999 Interruptions, Museo Nacional de Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon 1998 Jimmie Durham, Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp 1993 A Certain Lack of Coherence, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels; Original Re-runs, ICA, London 1988 Pocahontas and the Little Carpenter in London, Matt’s Gallery, London 1965 University of Texas Galleries, Austin, Texas. Group Exhibitions include 2006 Whitney Biennal, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 2005 The 2nd Guangzhou Triennal, Guagdon; 51st, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice 2004 100 Artists See God, ICA, London; Biennal of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2003 50th Venice Biennale, Venice 2001 49th Venice Biennale, Venice 1999 48th Venice Biennale, Venice 1994 Raw and Cooked, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid 1993 Whitney Biennal, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 1991 The Subversive Stitch, Simon Watson, New York; Documenta IX, Kassel, Germany Curated projects include 2005 The American West, Compton Verney, Warwickshire, curated by Jimmie Durham with Richard William Hill 1987 We are the People, Artists Space, New York, curated by Jimmie Durham and Jean Fisher 1986 Ni’Go tlunh a ooh ka (We are always turning around on Purpose), State University, New York, curated by Jean Fisher and Jimmie Durham Collections Volpinum Kunstammlung, Vienna; MuHKA Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwepen, Antwerp; S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin