Juliette Blightman at Fons Welters

Artist: Juliette Blightman

Venue: Fons Welters, Amsterdam

Exhibition Title: A Carpet for Your Somersaults

Date: March 14 – May 2, 2020

Click here to view slideshow

 

Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump.

Images:

Video:

Juliette Blightman, A Carpet For Your Somersaults (excerpt), 01:37

Images courtesy of Fons Welters, Amsterdam

Press Release:

The rhythm on the wall, Rhythm of the night,
Daily rhythm
In a bar, at home, at the library, at school, in coffee shops.

Surrounded by mirrors and pink spotlights contorting the body, twirling and flying through foggy air. Rain or Shine.
The color of the bulb can change the way the face appears in the mirror.

The canvases were bought at the store and painted in muddy monochromes. They retain the up and down movements of the brush, giving them slight tonal variation. Dark teal, yellow, a pencil drawing on canvas of a toilet with a hexagon tile floor besides it, white. Royal blue, black, crimson, elongated painting of a small toilet with a black seat and large shiny black tiles. Hunter green, pencil drawing on canvas of a toilet surrounded by leafy wallpaper and window covered with blinds, black, dark brick red. Green, white toilet, seat up, with black tiles and a brown bottle of something, same image, toilet seat down, black monochrome half the size of the rest.

Thinking inwards, I remember the trampoline had green tape on it.  I saw it in the dark, it was raining. Now in the film I see the tape to be white and black. After 12 seconds of a dark screen the trampoline appears amidst summer foliage. Black bars, black net, white clusters of tape on both, the part that one actually jumps on is black with a dark teal skirting, a grey metal structure and a rusty ladder are peaking out.  While focused on this one object the image floats, the footage is slowed down, a moving image rather than a still. Black again for 4 seconds. Three children are sitting in the trampoline, different angle, a still. Black, 4 seconds. Two children with two pink striped pillows and a pink blanket in the trampoline, it’s covered with silver foil, still, shot from upstairs window. Black, 4 seconds. Shot from upstairs, very sunny, there is a hunter green bench, a black umbrella, a child in pink and yellow with dozens of stuffed animals of various sizes bouncing up and down on the trampoline. Black, 2 seconds. Dark sky, a house with a light on, a red firework going up and out in the distance. Black, 10 seconds. Shimmering silver, sunlight reflects on black and pans over a foot up to the net, through to the summer foliage and the brick house, back to the black surface, swerving around and revealing the pink of a hand, we start to jump up and down, held in the hand, twirling, sometimes seeing the black surface and the plants and net with green clamps, circling towards the house and back around to the hand and legs in slow motion. Black, 6 seconds. A child in a trampoline. A different angle, a towel, a child lying down in the trampoline, pink slippers. Shot from upstairs, three trashcans, two mountain bikes, a clothesline with towels, trampoline, summer foliage, parking lot, two cars, brick building, still. A moving image of fireworks behind a house with the light on. Black, 4 seconds. A child standing up in the trampoline, face obscured by sunlight. Black, 4 seconds. The sky from inside the trampoline, still. Black, 4 seconds. The trampoline in cloudy weather, the bench looks grey, two shopping bags of weeds beside it. A grey pencil drawing of the same image. A watercolor painting of the trampoline and background. Moving image of fireworks set against a black sky. Black, 4 seconds. Interior shot of a room, it is night and a table light is on, the camera is focusing on the window, on a table in the corner we see a lamp, a globe, and cosmetic products, to the right of the window is a tall chair. Black, 4 seconds. The trampoline net,  the white and black tape, and green plastic ties holding it together. Black, 4 seconds. The trampoline and grey chair in the rain. The trampoline and a basketball, partially blocked by swooping foliage, still green, but turning red and swaying mildly. Fireworks and some camera movement against a black sky. The trampoline in the dark with child jumping, a party happening in the parking lot, still, shot from above. The trampoline in the dark. Fireworks shooting from the lawn up, the camera is in a crowd. The trampoline with deflated gold balloon attached, a  small discarded Christmas tree in the foreground. Black, 4 seconds. Fireworks against the black sky. The trampoline in a terrestrial downpour, shot from above, the camera shakes. The trampoline shot straight on, it is still pouring, the camera moves up to the grey sky, the net is still visible. The moon and the clouds against the black sky.

Olga Balema

 

Galerie Fons Welters is proud to present A Carpet for Your Somersaults, Juliette Blightman’s (1980, UK) second solo exhibition with the gallery.

Blightman earned a Bachelor in Fine Arts degree at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London in 2003 and a Master in Fine Arts at University of the Arts, London/Central St. Martins in 2007. Her most recent solo exhibitions include; Femme Maison at Felix Gaudlitz, Vienna (2019), This Ones for You, Maureen Paley (Condo London hosting Felix Gaudlitz), London (2019), Loved an Image, Galerie Fons Welters (2017), Extimacy at the Kunsthalle Bern (2016), Portraits and Repetition at the South London Gallery (2015-16), Juliette Blightman / Ellie Epp at the Badischer Kunstverein in Karlsruhe (2015), Come inside, Bitte at Eden Eden in Berlin (2015), Eden Eden Eden at Karma International in Los Angeles (2015), Gerry Bibby / Juliette Blightman at the Kunsthaus Bregenz (2014), I hope one day soon you’ll come and visit me here at Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie in Berlin (2011). Her works and performances have also been shown in the following exhibition spaces: Koelnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, Greene Naftali, New York, Kunstverein Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Cubitt, London, Artists Space, New York, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, Tramway, Glasgow, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, amongst others.

Link: Juliette Blightman at Fons Welters

from Contemporary Art Daily https://bit.ly/2UTKgRP