TIM HAWKINSON KARA TANAKA JOSH TONSFELDT MICHELLE LOPEZ

Simon Preston Gallery is pleased to present Fat Head Balloon Self-Portrait; Exercising for Exorcising (Mein Doppelganger); My Lights (Kokopelli); C3PO which opens to the public on Wednesday, June 18 and runs until Wednesday, July 30.

The central subject of Tim Hawkinson’s work is often his own body, which he inflates, measures, weighs and animates. Eschewing conventional self-portraiture, Hawkinson uses his own physical form as a starting point for investigations into material, perception and time. His analytical, often humorous approach, is balanced by a suggestion of spirituality. The latex skin of Fat Head Balloon Self-Portrait provides the perfect metaphor for simultaneous protection and exposure.

C3PO by Michelle Lopez is from an ongoing series of sculptures that engage in popular culture, in this instance, the Star Wars legacy. Through the deployment of a science fiction narrative, C3PO stands as an empty relic discarded from pop-cultural memory. Deflated and incidental, the bronze sculpture engages with the transience of cultural iconicity.

During her studies at Goldsmiths College in London, Kara Tanaka undertook a year long series of performative actions in an attempt to stage the exorcism of her doppelganger. The series was divided into 3 parts: a studio performance, the development of a proposal for the re-working of doppelganger mythology, and the creation of a painting. Exercising for Exorcising (Mein Doppelganger) effectively became the visual history of the energies required for the removal of a doppelganger from her sentient being.

In the back gallery, Josh Tonsfeldt’s My Lights (Kokopelli) begins with muted clips from an interview with the American composer David Amram. While poor sound quality rendered most of the interview unusable, one segment was salvaged: Amram’s casual suggestion that Tonsfeldt provide images to accompany his composition Kokopelli, an orchestral work based on a melody for the courting flute of the Lakota people. Tonsfeldt’s ambiguous footage of two figures in a forest, illuminated by the burning embers of a campfire and a laptop computer displaying a kaleidoscopic video effect, provides an unlikely and volatile counterpoint to Amram’s operatic composition. This layering of registers is further complicated by a sculptural element, emitting low-frequency sound to produce smoke rings rising from the floor.