The work was inspired by significant events in the artists’ personal lives: the birth of their son Neven and the death of their dog Djana shortly thereafter. In discussing the work Gueorguieva points out that: “It was about birth and death, about memory and the way that longing for someone or something you love can produce images. Past, present and future.”
In her drawings Gueorguieva presents a joining of opposites, like abstraction and figuration, in unexpected new combinations. She creates the impression of three dimensional space through the usage of multiple overlapping images and personal and calligraphic markings. Mcgarvey’s sound composition is based on actual field recordings from their house and garden combined with older and also purely instrumental material.
The concept of the title ‘Echolalia’ is mainly used in psychology and psychiatry to describe the condition in which a speaker shows a tendency to repeat someone else’s last word or phrase. The artists chose this title because of the implied mixture between past and future, compulsion and choice, meaning and non-meaning.
In their joint projects Gueorguieva and Mcgarvey research the interaction and interference between audio, visual, and tactile material, exploring the specific time expanding capacity of sound and creating an environment in which intense and significant visual and sonic experiences are interwoven. On a formal level their techniques are similar. They both work with collage, utilizing a layering process in which existent structures are destabilized and recalibrated by constant reworkings.
Opening Sunday 2 November 16:00 - 18:00 hrs
With an introduction by Bart Rutten, curator of Stedelijk Museum Den Bosch, Stedelijk Museum amsterdam [dec. 2008].
Exhibition runs until 29 november 2008.
Go to Outline Amsterdam for more information!