Scale is not real; space is relative. Comparative value is continuously engaged; singularity is impossible within the human gaze. Onslaught Undone is an investigation of spacial and experiential relativity in direct contrast to the accumulated visual, physical and aural experiences thrown at us in the digital age. “Switch off” is the frequent call to action; but “off” seems almost dead. We all want to be “switched on” and “tuned in”, a symptom of the over-stimulated, over-manipulated, too-much-information era. Through a virtually continuous conversation, artists Nemo Nonnenmacher and Stacie McCormick question the nature of contemporary experience, where disconnect becomes the unavoidable result of constant connectedness, translated into a collaboration of large-scale sculpture and gestural paintings. The two artists are riveted by the “real” and demonstrate a transformation of scale, mediating sensory input to counteract the speed of networks, creating a profound moment where the experience of the work itself constitutes an interpretation of the world.
Onslaught Undone sets out to practice reduction. By distilling their practices, Nonnenmacher and McCormick seek to allow the viewer to roam. The resulting smoothness becomes a fluid platform where we are encouraged to relinquish our chronic and fruitless urge to assess and “figure out”, symptomatic of our time. As Nonnenmacher explains, “undoing is not eradication, it is reconfiguration, catalysing to another space or object”. McCormick similarly observes that her process is “an undoing, a release of accumulation rather than destruction”.
At the core of this collaboration, the artists posit the impossibility of immediate awareness and a faith in the transformative aspect of experience. It is a demonstration of how to reconfigure an onslaught through finding a single note to hold onto, a compass to guide through the noise. As understanding is elusive and momentum insistent and unyielding, this exhibition puts a stick in the wheels and proposes a transitory stopping point.
Onslaught Undone inevitably creates a third space, a liminal space to meditate and release and thus transform.
Nemo Nonnenmacher (b. 1988, Germany) uses photography and sculpture to imagine the relationship between human hand and virtual space. Nonnenmacher graduated from Royal College of Art in 2017 and has been artist in residence at Edinburgh Summer Hall and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop in 2019, at Outset Contemporary Art Fund in Baker Street and at Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop in London in 2018. From 2012 to 2017 he was a fellow of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, exhibiting throughout Europe, including “Prototypen” at the Schleuse Opelvillen in Rüsselsheim, Germany in 2017 and the Fondazione “Fotografia” in Modena, Italy in 2016. Recent exhibitions include “The Same Tendencies” at Summerhall Galleries Edinburgh in 2019, “Onslaught Undone” at Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop, London and Acts of the Plough for Artlicks Weekend London, both in 2018.
Stacie McCormick (b. 1962 in Los Angeles, California) is a multi-disciplined artist based London. McCormick’s painting practice follows the principal of discovery in manifesting the accident within the abstract gestural arena. Her works are often concerned with the unexpected sublime found and recorded in photography, poetry, video as well sound. Stacie holds an MA in Fine Art from City & Guilds of London Art School, London, UK. As Director and Founder of Workshop Foundation and Unit 1 Gallery | Workshop, Stacie McCormick started and facilitates two Artist Residencies, including the Radical Residency® programme.
Exhibition will be open until January 10th of 2020.
Admission is Free.
www.menoparkas.lt
