Jeff Carter, System and Susan Giles, Störung, Eihaken,und Schluckauf 2

January 19 – March 1, 2008
Opening Reception: January 19, 11AM - 9PM

Gallery Hours:
Thursday - Friday 12PM – 6PM, Saturday 11AM – 4PM

Kavi Gupta Gallery - Leipzig
Spinnereistr. 7, Halle 4 B
04179 Leipzig, Germany
+49 (0) 341 478 42 926
www.kavigupta.com

Left: Jeff Carter, System, 2008 (detail installation shot), pulley’s, string, IKEA shelving, and Leipzig T-Shirt souvenirs; variable dimensions
Right: Susan Giles, Störung, Eihaken, und Schluckauf 2, 2004 (DVD still image)

First Floor
Jeff Carters’ System, 2008 furthers his interest in travel, site-specificity, and the context of tourism through the effects time and distance have on objects such as souvenirs. His new project created specifically for the gallery in Leipzig titled System consists of a motorized network of pulleys and a single loop of string, (produced at the Spinnerei), and refers to the former use of the space as a cotton-spinning factory. This moving “web” occupies the entire space and forms an intricate linear structure that spatially intersects with a shelving system manufactured by IKEA. Reconfigured (or “hacked”) to serve as a support structure for the kinetic pulley system, the shelves, originally designed for clothing, will also hold various tourist t-shirts purchased by the artist in Leipzig. The resulting installation spans the intricacies of one’s sense of place through the complexities of tourism and one’s perception of landscape by forcing an intersection between the history of the Spinnerei complex with the “placelessness” of the IKEA design aesthetic.
Jeff Carter (b. 1967) lives and works in Chicago. Carter has had solo exhibitions at Kavi Gupta Gallery and Spencer brownstone Gallery, NY and selected group exhibitions include Universal Experience: Art, Life and the Tourist’s Eye, curated by Francesco Bonami, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago which traveled to the Hayward Gallery in London; Kaoshiung Museum of Fine Art in Taiwan, the Renaissance Society in Chicago and Museum 52, London. Carter’s work has also been recently added to the permanent collection of the Smart Museum of Art in Chicago.

Second Floor
Susan Giles’ Störung, Eihaken, und Schluckauf 2, 2004 is a video that consists of a series of brief moments captured unintentionally on tape by numerous people while traveling throughout the world. The clips are the spaces in between the sweeping panoramas, historical buildings, ancient ruins, beaches, spectacles, and cultural capitals. Together they are rich in texture, color, and rhythm, yet they describe the less picturesque side of travel: the discomfort of legs stuck to the car seat in the summer, a weary companion’s grumbling, forgetfulness (that the camera is still on), boredom, anxiety, and confusion. They also expose an uncomfortable intimacy as the camcorder at times rests between bare thighs, is tucked under an arm, or held against a belly. Audible off-screen discussion of what or how to capture the moment serves as a reminder of the intentional conventions and constructions of sightseeing.
Susan Giles (b. 1967) lives and works in Chicago. Giles has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary art Chicago, Gahlberg Gallery McAninch Arts Center, IL and Spencer Brownstone Gallery in NY. Group exhibitions include the Renaissance Society, Chicago; Roebling Hall, NY; David Risley Gallery, London; The Cheekwood Museum, Nashville; Santa Monica Museum of Art and the Kunsthalle Goppingen, Germany.

For more information on the exhibition please contact info@kavigupta.com or call: +49 (0) 341 478 42 926