LIT at Union Pacific

Artists: Rebecca Ackroyd, Graham Grover, Stian Eide Kluge, Alicja Kwade, Philip Seibel, Will Thompson, Urara Tsuchiya, Nuno Sousa Vieira, Bruno Zhu

Exhibition title: LIT

Venue: Union Pacific, London, UK

Date: November 23 – December 16, 2017

Photography: all images courtesy of the artists and Union Pacific, London

A press release is always the most awkward thing and we never really know how to approach it. Every single time a group show comes up we get this deeply laden anxiety about how to conceptually frame all of the work, basically an impossible task and to do so usually sells something short – Will it be one of those descriptive press releases that speaks to the viewer in a sort of didactic tone, or the ‘funny’ press release that uses humour to displace the sincerity, and attempt to remove the awkwardness. Another option is to outsource the writing, which always feels like its a cop-out if we ourselves have specifically selected a group of works with a concept in mind. There final option, is of course not having one at all which could suggest someone not doing their homework. This time, thinking it was inventive, we initially thought of making a sort of storyboard press release, which is a lot harder than originally anticipated (even attempted commissioning a caricature artist on the street) because an image can fall into all the same traps as text, unfortunately.

So, finally, thinking about it, maybe the best position to take is one of total transparency. These are a group of works and artists that we really like – many of them relate to a notion of function in some format – many on the verge of being utilitarian. This seems honestly interesting, as we are constantly observing objects in the everyday and thinking how much they are essentially objects of art – and of course questioning what the separation is. Having seen these art objects you can never un see their real life working counterparts.

Nuno Sousa Vieira, Waiting for Hope Across the Window, 2013, Metal and wood window from Fábrica de Plásticos Simala‘s and plastic bag, 115 cm x 75 cm x 51 cm

Rebecca Ackroyd, Carrier: capsule, 2017, Graphite powder, photocopies, chicken wire, iron powder, 222 cm x 137 cm x 20 cm

Will Thompson, Suitcase # 2, 2017, Suitcase, Dibond, Metal, Paper, Perspex, 420 cm x 530 cm x 170 cm

LIT, 2017, exhibition view, Union Pacific, London

Philip Seibel, Untitled (radiator 3), 2017, Wood, PU paint, resin, brass and faux leather, 120 cm x 87 cm x 22 cm

LIT, 2017, exhibition view, Union Pacific, London

Will Thompson, Ahk, 2017, Lime wood, Glass Eye, 24 cm x 19 cm x 3 cm

LIT, 2017, exhibition view, Union Pacific, London

Stian Eide Kluge,  Fan (56 Dark Oak) #05, #03, 2016 , Crayon, pencil, stain, floor varnish and water colour on paper; stain, oil and wax on oak, glass , 23.5 cm x 46.5 cm x 3.0 cm