Live Event Saturday 13th October, 7-9pm, SO-LA: archaeological findings
For the final instalment of CYcLORAMA Mark Aerial Waller returns to Cell Project Space to present a newly commissioned exhibition of work.
Meditations on the cosmos have been a persistent concern for human kind since our emergence. Ritual events have been devised to heirarchically mediate between the universe, civilisation and the individual as a means to consider the position of our existence in relation to infinite time and space. This triad of universe / civilisation / individual is the tension for Waller’s newly reconstructed video work, Time Together. Within a new period of research, incorporating work produced at CAC Vilnius for the Baltic Triennial, the artist merges the ancient past of Mesopotamia together with present day scientific observations of solar storms.
As the title implies, the sun takes centre stage. For ‘SO-LA’ Waller departs from his more familiar framework of practice, by using scientific data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a spacecraft that was launched on February 11th 2010 with a primary mission to last 5 years. Waller sets the scene by tenaciously stitching together terabytes of image data taken from outer space, viewing and investigating the sun from its deep core, through its outer atmosphere -the corona -and the domain of the solar wind. This solar data is set in relation to a bronze cast, reconstructed from a 3,000 year old near eastern antiquity Sit Shamshi, depicting a temple site and ritual to the rising sun.
To activate the elusive passing of time throughout the course of the exhibition, real-time digital data of the sun will be updated and presented in unison with a moving architectural construct built for the exhibition. Temporary, permanent dimming or cutting off of the light will occur over the course of events to create a series of eclipses in the exhibition space.
Working in video, sculpture and event based practices Mark Aerial Waller will provide both an interpretation and interruption of history. Whilst science edges closer to proving the existence of history by studying rapid changes in the pattern of energy fields, humankind will create various systems of reckoning time in which the beginning, length, and divisions of a year are all defined. With recourse to technological and narrative mechanisms, Waller stretches, reiterates and at times perverts this mainstream vocabulary of structure and dramatic staging.
Mark Aerial Waller is participating in The 11th edition of the Baltic Triennial of International Art, CAC Vilnius, Lithuania in August to September this year. In 2012 he exhibited in‘Superpower: Africa in Science Fiction’, curated by Nav Haq at Arnolfini, Bristol. Recent solo exhibitions include, ‘Offering Transmissions’, at Rodeo, Istanbul and ‘This isn’t Nelsons time it’s 1956 and it’s time to get out and leave this schtick’ at Outpost, Norwich in 2011. Past solo exhibitions include ‘The Cassiopeia Plan’ at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge and ‘Resistance Domination Secret’ at Cell Project Space, London. Selected group Exhibitions include: ‘Like the Fireflies’, Nicoletta Rusconi, Milan, ‘More Soup & Tart’, a sculptural performance at the Barbican, London. ‘Kafe Pitoresk: L’éxperience du Monde Visionnaire’, (collaboration with Giles Round) at Serpentine Gallery, and solo pieces; ‘For the Straight Way is Lost’, 2nd Athens Biennale, Greece (2009), ‘You have Not Been Honest’, Museo D’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Naples, Italy, British Council (2007) and ‘La Societé des Amis de Judex II’, Tate Modern, London (2007). His collaborative novel ‘Philip’, A speculative fiction with Cosmin Costinas, Rosemary Heather, Francis McKee, David Reinfurt, Steve Rushton, Heman Chong and Leif Magne Tangen, published by Project press, Dublin in 2007. Waller is also the founder of ‘The Wayward Canon’, a platform for event-based interventions in cinematic practices.
Supported by The Arts Council Of England
'TIME TOGETHER' produced by CAC Vilnius for the Baltic Triennial
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