Invocation at fluent

Artists: Tamara Henderson, Ernesto Neto, The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, José Antonio Suárez Londoño, Gina Folly, Zigor Barayazarra

Exhibition title: Invocation

Curated by: Alejandro Alonso Díaz

Venue: fluent, Santander, Spain

Date: September 20 – October 7, 2018

Photography: Gerardo Vela / all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and fluent, Santander

‘‘The entire technique of ritual depends on an ability to take one piece of consciousness and stretch it two ways at once, Inwardly and Outwardly. This sounds simple, but is far from being so with humans accustomed to a one-sided view of Nature’’*

* WilliamG. Gray, Magical Ritual Methods.

Human subjectivity of non-human entities and their environments is shaped by distinct cultural patterns encoded in society’s acts, languages and processes. By concretely naming the non-human; rituals, ceremonies, liturgies and rits are a fundamental basis of our social ecosystems. These processes give rise to a complex set of cultural categories that both constitute a sense of difference and establish various forms of relationship between humans, objects, animals and natural forces. Such categories also project particular forms of relation within human communities, defining our understanding of demographic, identitarian and economic interactions.

Addressing these processes as a larger continuum of world construction, Invocation gathers a selection of documents, objects and contributions by artists from different generations that focus on aural and ritualistic processes of transformation. From ancient Egyptian, Celtic and Native American crafts, to technological futurism, the exhibition explores how ritual processes define the interaction, both physical and metaphysical, between cultural objects and our perception of them.

Invocation, 2018, installation view, fluent, Santander, Courtesy of the artists and fluent

Invocation, 2018, installation view, fluent, Santander, Courtesy of the artists and fluent

Tamara Henderson, Samma Arahung, 2017, Wood, mix of fabrics, cork, leather, copper, mirrors, canvas, lace, glass sphere, caliber, copper wire, massage painting made by Kannika onto black t-shirt and passport, Courtesy of the artist and Rodeo, London

Tamara Henderson, Samma Arahung, 2017, Wood, mix of fabrics, cork, leather, copper, mirrors, canvas, lace, glass sphere, caliber, copper wire, massage painting made by Kannika onto black t-shirt and passport, Courtesy of the artist and Rodeo, London

Tamara Henderson, First Wild, 2017, Wood, mix of fabrics, cork, copper, lace, glass sphere, bottle with corals and passport. Courtesy of the artist and Rodeo, London

Tamara Henderson, First Wild, 2017, Wood, mix of fabrics, cork, copper, lace, glass sphere, bottle with corals and passport. Courtesy of the artist and Rodeo, London

Invocation, 2018, installation view, fluent, Santander, Courtesy of the artists and fluent

Zigor Barayazarra, Ejercicios de voluntad (Vivir en la escultura), 2016-2018, Bread sculptures

Zigor Barayazarra, Ejercicios de voluntad (Vivir en la escultura), 2016-2018, Bread sculptures

Invocation, 2018, installation view. The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, Archival materials featuring: photographs, documents and books; and Gina Folly, Other Life, 2017. Courtesy of the artist and fluent.

Kibbo Kift Kinsmen at White Horse of Uffington, 1929, Photograph: Angus McBean, Courtesy of the Kibbo Kift foundation and fluent

Gina Folly, Other Life, 2017, Light poems made of transmitter, timer, cables and light bulbs

Invocation, 2018, installation view, Gina Folly, Domestic Problems, 2016 and Ernesto Neto, Su cuerpo duerme, 2000, Courtesy of the artists and fluent

Ernesto Neto, Su cuerpo duerme, 2000, Polystyrene balls, stockings and nails, Courtesy of the artist and CV collection

Invocation, 2018, installation view, fluent, Santander, Courtesy of the artists and fluent

José Antonio Suárez Londoño, Untitled #24, 2007, Engraving on cotton paper, 27.9 x 19 cm