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"The lighthouse is empty, deserted,
saturated in absence, an island at the edge of the flickering glacial rim of
the new city: the carcass of a cyclops, its eye extinguished and removed."
Brian Catling has been writing in the lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf in preparation
for the installation he is making there for Matt's Gallery. This work is the
result of this time spent listening to its gutted and empty space and is inspired
and directed by its atmosphere and history. Catling turns the lantern which
has been removed into an inward-looking metaphor, searching out the remaining
traces of its mythical history, 'relighting it with fiction'.
Trinity Buoy Wharf was once the centre of waterway maintenance for the docks
and a print from 1896 shows it as a crowded and thriving workplace with buoys
of every shape and size sitting upon the quayside. It now awaits redevelopment.
Catling is a sculptor, poet and performance artist who is obsessed by the atmosphere
of place. He articulates words, objects and action to create a 'symbiotic' total.
These are transient works which chose their habitat with great care, and have
included a wide range of sites: the Victoria and Albert Museum, a disused salt
silo, and sites organised by museums and galleries in Britain, Germany, Norway,
Ireland, Denmark and Switzerland.
Many of these events are evocatively described in the publication which accompanies
the exhibition, SOUNDINGS: A TRACTATE OF ABSENCE. A 48 page book with colour
and black and white illustrations, it marks the development of Catling's work
since he finished the Henry Moore Fellowship at Norwich in 1986. The text was
written at the lighthouse by Catling and gives an account of his singular way
of working, synthesising sculptural installation, text and image.
Matt's Gallery and the artist thank the Museum of London and Trinity House
for their help with this project. At The Lighthouse is a Matt's Gallery
off-site location.
It will be on view at The Lighthouse, Trinity Buoy Wharf, Orchard Place, London
E14 between 8th November and 1st December 1991.
Fridays to Sundays 11-4pm
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Biography
Born London 1948. Lives and works in Oxford
Studied
MA Linacre College Oxford, MA Royal College of Art, BA North East London Polytechnic
Solo Exhibitions (installation, sculpture & large performance works):
2010
Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool Biennial
2008
Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh
2005
Antix, Matt's Gallery, London
2002
Antic, ( norwegian language version), Trans-Art Gallery, Trondheim;
Buhl Cyclops, AKW, Stadt Buhl, Germany
2000
Man In the Moon, Galleri e.s.Bergen
1999
Were : The Chamber works, ICA, London, (funded by the British Council)
1998
Were, durational performance, Matt's Gallery, London
1997
Cyclops (video installation in German language), Project Gallery, Leipzig;
Country of the Blind, text, drawings & video, The Economist, London;
Nordic Cyclops (video installation), Museet for Samtidskunst, Oslo
1996
Cyclops (video installation), South London Gallery, London
1995
Cyclops, Galerie Satellite, Paris
1994
The Blindings, Serpentine Gallery, London
1993
Ten Gallery, Fukuoka, Japan;
La Bas, Galerie Satellite, Paris
1991
At The Lighthouse, Matt's Gallery, London
1989
Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1988
Atrium, Neuw Gallery, Sammalung Ludwig, Aachen, Germany
1987
White Breath/Red Heart, Hordaland Kunstnercentrum, Bergen, Norway;
Lair, Matt's Gallery, London
1986
On Touching And Haunting A Noble Silent Room, Leifsgade 22, Copenhagen
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2010
From Floor to Sky: British Sculpture and the Studio ExperienceAmbika P3, London;
Magic Show, Hayward Gallery Touring
2005
Variety Delaware Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea
2000
Small act at the Millennium
1999
Spin, British Library, London
1998
Oak Repels Lightning, Science Musuem, London
1997
A Cloudburst of Material Possessions, Purdy Hicks & Touring
Selected Performance Works:
2011
SMART Project Space, Amsterdam (forthcoming);
Labyrinth of Living Exhibits, Hunterian Museum, London
2010
Night & Day, Modern Art Oxford;
Mr. Rapehead, ICA London;
To Be Present, Amsterdam;
Magicshow, Quad Derby
2009
SMART Museum Night, Amsterdam
2008
Night at the Music Hall, Rational Rec, Wiltons, London
2007
Long Breath, For ASA, Maschinehaus Essen, Germany;
One must be so careful these days, Alma Enterprises, London;
THE RAIL, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham;
It's Just Bread, Alma Enterprises, London;
Fresh Festival, South Hill Park, Bracknell;
AIAV. Yamaguchi, Japan;
Art Space Tetra, Fukuoka Japan
2005
Mellom himmel og ha, Performance festival, Bergen, Norway;
Halle Cyclops, Handel-Festspiele, Halle (Saale) Electric Renaissance
2003
A Certain Turbulence, Reykjavik Contemporary Art Museum, Iceland;
Acts of Faith & Generosity, La Bisbal, Spain
2002
London Orbital Barbican Theatre, London;
Steder: more places for ever, Lillehammer, Norway;
The Boulevards, Den Bosch theatre festival, Netherlands
2001
BBC/Modus Operandi, video commission;
60 1 minute performances Karlsruhl, Germany
Late Harping Tour, Etruscan;
OX1, Brooks University, Oxford;
The Wolf and the Winter, Den Bosch, Holland
1999 ASA, Cologne;
Were You There? s'Hertogenbosch
1998
Bone, Bern Performance Festival;
Virus, Freiwild Festival, Halle, Germany;
Stadt Gallerie, Bern, Switzerland
1997 Bergen Performace Festival, Norway; Science Museum, London;
Flylkingen, Stockholm;
Night of the Living Tongues, Cambridge;
Cyclops, Tel Aviv, Israel;
Hush, Slaughter House Gallery;
Ontmoeting, s'Hertogenbosch, Holland;
One Night Stands, Norwich Gallery; Madrid Performance Festival;
1996
Freiwild Festival, Halle, Germany;
Clepsydra, South London Gallery, London
1995
Konsum Projekt, Baitz, Brandenburg, Germany;
Hidden Cities, bus tour, Laboratory Gallery, Oxford;
Revenge Of the Reforgotten Royal Albert Hall, London
1994
Samtids Museum, Oslo; Olot Festival & Girona Kulturhall, Catalonia, Spain; Serpentine Gallery, London; The Reading Room & The King's Library at the British Library and the Castle Mount; The Castle Mound Oxford, Bookworks
1993
Artifact Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel; Kityakushu Museum of Art, Japan; Ujazdowski Centre of Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland; Tate Gallery, London
1992
Schloss Pluschow, Mecklenburgisches Kunstlerhaus, Germany;
The Melk Fabrike, s'Hertogenbosch, Netherlands; Gianozzo, Berlin;
1991
Belluard-Bolwerk Festival,
Fribourg, Switzerland; Museum of Living Art, Reykjavik, Iceland; Naturhistoric Museum, Bergen, Norway; Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1990
Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth; Trondelec Arts Centre, Trondheim, Norway; Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Commissioned Works:
2006
Monument at the site of execution in The Tower of London
2002
Presence, A commissioned work for Broadcasting House BBC
1995
Window, installed sculpture for the British Embassy, Dublin, PACA & The Government Art Collection
1994
A Conceptual Telescope For Bergen, public commissioned work for the city over five sites.
Video works with Tony Grisoni (joint authorship, production and direction):
2005
The Cutting
1999
Vanished! A Video Séance
1998
Palermo
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Bibliography
Selected Publications
2009
A Court of Miracles, Etruscan Books
2007
Bobby Awl, Etruscan books
2004
Vanishing Points, Ed. Rob Mengham & John Kinsella, Salt Publishing
2003
The Pittancer, Kultureflash website
1997-2001
Twentieth-Century British & Irish Poetry Ed. K Tuma, OUP, New York;
Large Ghost, Equipage, Cambridge;
Late Harping, Etruscan books;
Thyhand, Alfred David Editions, London;
The Blindings, Bookworks;
The First London Hallo, (single book) Bookworks, London;
Thy hand, Parataxis;
Soundings: A Tractate of Absence, Matt's Gallery, London;
Future Exiles, Three London Poets, Paladin Press;
The Stumbling Block, Bookworks, London;
Boscholog, Few Goats Press, NYC;
1996
Conductors of Chaos, Picador, 1996
1992
The New British Poetry, Paladin
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