30 November – 7 January 2007
One in the Other is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new work by London based Israeli artist Karen Russo. Russo is known for her work in drawing, video, installation and writing. For her exhibition she will be presenting two new video works, ‘Insiders’ 2006 and ‘Point of Departure’ 2006, along with some of her distinctive works on paper.
‘Insiders’
This film consists of interviews with both prisoners who are engaged in art, and with established artists. It revolves around their passions, emotions, thoughts and motivations behind the creation of their art. Filmed in silhouette, at times the viewer is unclear as to which is which, leading to confusion and a parallel between “artist” and “criminal”, thus seeking to challenge both stereotypes. Detached, reclusive, narcissistic and rebellious, the traits of an artist or a criminal?
Russo began investigating this film after learning about research during the time of the Third Reich that attempted to explore the similarities between the brain structures of criminals and artists. ‘Insiders’ deals with the relationships between crime, madness, violence, deception and art. In a situation that creates a double inversion of the romantic relationship between high forms of art and crime, and of the less readily acceptable connection between crime and low forms of art.
For Russo the work seeks to address, ‘society’s attitude towards innovation, criminality and creativity; where the boundaries might lie, and to try to examine how society responds to deviations from the norm and to explore the romanticization of the criminal in our culture, with all its aesthetic, moral and social ramifications.’
‘The Point of Departure’
Filmed in the vast Paris sewage system and the catacombs, the work becomes an intimate journey tracing a downward voyage through time into a mythic space below central Paris. Inspired by the Romantics' concept of mines, caves and underground spaces as living entities, the video is intended to act as an aperture through the gallery into a parallel, subterranean world.
The film begins inside a museum - an institute representing the cultural authority through which art is already "digested". At this point a real, and metaphorical, journey starts through the underground floors of the museum, through its tubular bowels and sewage tunnels to which it is connected, then down into a labyrinthine universe.
The descent slowly becomes an escape journey. Is this a hiding place or a death trap? Along the way the real and literary characters that once inhabited the Paris sewers come to mind: Jean Valjan, Phantomas and Javert. The resistance fighters of the Second World War planned to make use of it, and more recently, the staging of illegal parties has become popular. From time to time the body of someone is discovered who entered the catacomb tunnels alone and lost their way.
The Paris sewage system spreads out in various and intersecting layers parallel to the city above it. In a certain sense it is another Paris, black and rank, a cynical doppelganger of a parallel world of streets and houses on the surface. The work refers to the sewer as the arena of the individual, a journey to the middle of the earth evoking memory, rebirth and self -discovery. A portal where one could move from one dimension to another.
Recent solo exhibitions include Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv, Delfina, London, VTO, London, Israel Museum, Jerusalem and Herzliya Museum, Israel. Recent group shows include Krefeld Museum, Germany, The Great Unsigned at Chapman Fine Arts, London, Vivian Horan Gallery, New York, Haus Der Kulturen Die Welt, Berlin, Andrew Mummery, London.
The Point of Departure
The Point of Departure