Discover the Interconnectedness of Human Stories, Memories, and Parallel Realities
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Limbo Land (Fall/WINTER 2001), Design for a Carnival (Fall 2004), and taken in fall out (Fall 2010) are the three solo exhibitions British artist Adam Chodzko installed first at Els Hanappe Underground and successively at SIAKOS.HANAPPE House of Art, both in Athens, Greece. The titles in themselves seem to indicate intricate thought processes and indeed, each exhibition proved to be a walk through a “space of consciousness”, as the artist calls it.
Chodzko's oeuvre, which has developed over a continuous career that spans more than three decades, shows a consistency in observation and reflection resembling an ever expanding spider web. Artworks are woven together and the web that holds them together are the references through time and space to art history, and to people's - mostly strangers’ - memories, individual histories and perceptions.
The work is humanistic in that it shows a kindness to insignificant but personal stories that define and mark their owners. Each exhibition displays this poetic and sensitive approach and understanding as the artist demonstrates to the viewer the interconnectedness of earthlings. An example is the enigmatic and surreal slide projection Turning Point (2007, a performance for drivers on a bridge, silent 80 x 35mm film carousel slide projection, 5 minutes), where a single man deals with a car breakdown on a bridge in between two countries and a pin becomes the focus of attention as cars zoom by.
Whilst the discussion surrounding the relativity of space and time intensifies in light of the fast developing discoveries in A.I. and the possible confirmation of extra-terrestrial life, Chodzko's work seems eerily relevant. The next meeting series for instance combines on every occasion three locations with three moments in time by accompanying images borrowed from tourists’ ‘amateur’ photographs taken on their travels in the 1950’s – early 1980’s and recorded on 35mm slide film, with texts extracted from out-of-date tourist guides published during this same period, and printed together as (billboard) posters that are fly-posted in public places, adding yet another location and specific time. Chodzko often talks about the possibility of future meetings that remain somehow suspended in the air. You’ll see; this time it’ll be different (2013, 20 x AO (841mm x 1189mm) inkjet prints, silkscreen print, sellotape and various ‘stains’), a poster project commissioned by the Benaki Museum in Athens, combines archival material from the museum with announcements of plausible future events set in a variety of peculiar venues. The Pickers is a blend of archival footage from 20 th century migrant hop pickers from London and memories from Ceausescu’s Romania with video recordings of young Romanian strawberry workers at a British strawberry farm with overarching sound effects essential to the bridging of the different spaces. Once more, Chodzko projects parallel realities, asking questions about the when and where.
Chodzko's work is multi-layered and invites the viewer to immerse him/herself in the experience, to connect through shared imagination and meditation. An artwork is an entry into this world further created by the artist's multiple publications, carefully construed and illustrated.
Cover Image: Adam Chodzko Next Meeting: The car park of the plywood factory, just north of the town of Tolhóin … (2008). Courtesy of Siakos Hanappe House of Art.
Written by Kooness
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