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For his second solo exhibition at Camden Arts Centre, British artist Simon Martin (b. 1965) presents a new film, UR Feeling. This new work takes its title and direction from a quote by architect Peter Eisenman in conversation with Charles Jencks, discussing the redevelopment of Santiago de Compostela’s historic city centre.
'They will feel in the alleyways something, but it’s not quite medieval and it’s not quite modern. It’s something else. In other words, my whole idea of affect is that you experience something, you feel something, you see something, but you can’t quite explain it. It has an Ur-dimension to it… something between understanding and not, let’s say.’ Peter Eisenman
Martin is interested in how we understand ourselves through social structures, mythologies and collective memory evidenced in art objects, mass media and popular culture. UR Feeling manifests his research into the built environment through the bodies of two performers and it is the first time he has worked with people rather than objects. The film conveys atmosphere achieved through improvisatory movements and a sound environment. Samples include a reconstruction of a lyre that was excavated from the ancient site of the Mesopotamian city, Ur.
In 2012 Martin exhibited a selection of objects and images at Camden Arts Centre by artists and designers such as Ettore Sottsass, Scott Burton and Stephen Shore. The presentation investigated the affect and state between knowing and sensing, in relationship to materiality and the built environment. This exhibition is seen as the ‘preview’ to the film shown now. UR Feeling is also the third part in a trilogy of films: Carlton (2006) questioned how we receive images, how objects are apprehended, or are held in abeyance, by their representations: Louis Ghost Chair (2011) was a meditation on materiality and how objects pass through time as participants in a social world. UR Feeling differs from these earlier works in that it is not narrated by spoken word - its communication is evocative.
Simon Martin lives and works in London. Solo exhibitions include Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland (2013); Camden Arts Centre (2012); Bass Museum of Art, Miami, Chisenhale Gallery, and Lightbox Tate Britain, both London (all 2008). Recent group exhibitions include The Event Sculpture at Henry Moore Institute Leeds (2014); Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea (offsite commission, 2014); The Imaginary Museum at Kunstveriem Munich (with Ed Atkins) and How to Look at Everything at The Common Guild, Glasgow (both 2012); British Art Show 7: In the Days of the Comet at Hayward Gallery, CCA Glasgow / Tramway and This is Sculpture at Tate Liverpool (both 2011). He will participate in the upcoming group exhibition The Parliament of Things, First Site, Colchester. He was the recipient of a Paul Hamlyn Award (2008) and shortlisted for the Jarman Award (2009).
Commissioned by FLAMIN Productions through Film London Artists' Moving Image Network with funding from Arts Council England
Camden Arts Centre
Arkwright Road
London
NW3 6DG
United Kingdom
