Lisson Gallery is pleased to announce the sixth solo exhibition of Dan Graham in
London since his first show in 1972. Dan Graham is one of the heroic artists
from the late 1960s who first began to investigate the relationship between
architectural environments and those who inhabit them. His very personal and
intuitive exploration of architectural space and perception is defined by his glass
structures or pavilions, models, photographs and video works.
Graham's work has always involved the voyeuristic act of seeing oneself reflected
at the same time as watching others, and an awareness of this dual perception
amidst a constantly changing natural landscape. Dan Graham has described the
broad practice of his work as "geometric forms inhabited and activated by the
presence of the viewer, [producing] a sense of uneasiness and psychological
alienation through a constant play between feelings of inclusion and exclusion."
In his own words, Dan Graham has described his "proposed pavilions in two way
mirror glass and conventional transparent glass as mimicking the condition of
architecture in the city from which suburban arcadia sees itself in a dialectical and
utopian retreat. They simultaneously evoke the historical precedent of garden
pavilion forms from the Renaissance and Rococo fabriqués in Western garden
art to the Chinese garden pavilions, which used circular open portals and
windows."
Read moreThe exhibition will include two of these full scale outdoor pavilions, Triangular
Pavilion with Circular Cut Outs and the Greek Cross both of which encourage
active participation. Viewers are expected to walk in and out of the pavilions
observing both themselves and the reflections around them. The Greek Cross
will be a six by eight metre labyrinthine structure composed of wooden shoji
screens and large two way mirror reflective glass walls.
Among the four models that will be shown are Swimming Pool / Fish Pond, a
project in which a swimming pool and an aquarium would occupy adjacent
spaces; and Portal which was proposed as a portal for a late 1990s airport hotel.
The sides are curved two way mirror glass that is concave on the inside.
Potential spectators passing through the pavilion would see enlarged views of
their own bodies as well as reflected views of the skyscape and the surrounding
city.
Also included in the exhibition will be the Lisa Bruce Boutique Design of 1997, a
recent development in which Dan Graham has been testing his approach with
functional store front shop design.
The exhibition will have a dedicated video screening area presenting a selection
of video performances and tapes as well as a daily screening at noon of Rock My
Religion. This seminal film charts the history of Rock and Roll music from its
origins in the 'reeling and rocking' and 'speaking in tongues' of the early
American Shaker communities to rock music's promotion of sexual freedom in
the 1950s and 60s which was based on the futility of deferred pleasure and a
disavowal of the regime of work and technology produced by the threat of the
nuclear bomb.
Dan Graham lives and works in New York City. His recent retrospective opened
in January at Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto and it will
travel to Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Kröller-Müller Museum,
Otterlo; Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki.
