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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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