BLACK BUBBLES
STEVIE DIX, IRMA ÁLVAREZ LAVIADA, DASHA SHISHKIN, FABIO VISCOGLIOSI, FELIX TREADWELL, RICHIE CULVER
12 February - 12 March, 2021

BLACK BUBBLES, 2021. Installation view at L21. 

FELIX TREADWELL
Tiny journey series 7, 2021
Charcoal and pastel on paper

14.3 x 21 cm

RICHIE CULVER
Untitled, 2021
Acrílico y lápiz sobre papel

50 x 40 cm

DASHA SHISHKIN
Untitled (small faces), 2020
Acrylic on paper

30 x 21 cm

DASHA SHISHKIN

Untitled (bigger faces), 2020

Acrylic on Mylar

106.5 x 76 cm

BLACK BUBBLES, 2021. Installation view at L21. 

FELIX TREADWELL
Tiny journey series 10, 2021
Charcoal and pastel on paper

14.3 x 21 cm

BLACK BUBBLES, 2021. Installation view at L21. 

STEVIE DIX
Sewing Machine 8, 2021
Graphite pencil and coloured pencils on paper

29.7 x 42 x 4 cm

STEVIE DIX
Sewing Machine 10, 2021
Graphite pencil and coloured pencils on paper

29.7 x 42 x 4 cm

STEVIE DIX
Sewing Machine 7, 2021
Graphite pencil and coloured pencils on paper

29.7 x 42 x 4 cm

STEVIE DIX
Sewing Machine 9, 2021
Graphite pencil and coloured pencils on paper

29.7 x 42 x 4 cm

STEVIE DIX
Sewing Machine 2, 2021
Graphite pencil and coloured pencils on paper

29.7 x 42 x 4 cm

BLACK BUBBLES, 2021. Installation view at L21. 

FABIO VISCOGLIOSI
I Movimenti, 2020
Ink on paper

110 x 75 cm

BLACK BUBBLES, 2021. Installation view at L21. 

IRMA ÁLVAREZ-LAVIADA
S.T. (el espacio entre las cosas), 2021
Pigmented inks on cotton paper

100 x 100 cm

FROM BUBBLES TO FOAM

 

“For as long as the bubble lasted, its creator was beside himself,as if its consistency was dependent on his undivided attention, like an entity of its own floating alongside it.”1

 

Peter Sloterdijk begins his theory of spheres by describing a print from the 19th Century2. In it, a boy blows soap bubbles and follows them with his gaze, entirely absorbed, as they float into the void. The relationship between the creator and his passing creation is complex: the boy and his bubbles, and how he is beside himself accompanying them on their journey until, in the end, they burst. In other words, “while the bubbles move in the air, their creator is truly beside himself – alongside and in the bubbles.”3

 

A bubble is an encased surface yet susceptible to bursting at any time, opening up to the outside world and, above all, susceptible to encountering other bubbles on its path, and to forming temporary and ephemeral communities, to shaping into foam. In a spontaneous and unstoppable manner, like the foam of the sea on a wave, composed of tiny bubbles seeking each other out, finding one another and huddling together for an instant to then disperse once again. This makes it possible to form communities or, simply, disappear into the vastness of the sea.

 

The collective exhibition “Black Bubbles” is a good example of these spontaneous condensations of different bubbles, a temporary community formed in an exhibition room, which will later disperse. The exhibition is composed of a selection of works on paper by Stevie Dix (1990, Genk), Irma Alvárez, Laviada (1978, Gijón), Dasha Shishkin (1977, Moscow), Fabio Viscogliosi (1965, Oullins), Richie Culver (1979, Withernsea) and Felix Treadwell (1992, Maidstone).

 

Bordered by their black frames, the works by these artists form a foam. And yet, at the same time, each of these bubbles retains its individuality and tells its own story – from the figures in black and white by Shishkin to Fabio Viscogliosi’s and Felix Treadwell’s characters; from Álvarez Laviada’s geometries to the coloured textures in Stevie Dix’s studies, passing through the light-hearted humour of Culver’s statements. Foam, in short, that climbs up the walls of the small room and becomes dense, and concentrated, before dispersing yet again.

 

1. Sloterdijk, Peter. Esferas I. Madrid: Siruela. 2014. Page 27. (Spanish edition)
2. Bubbles, mezzotint by G. H. Every, 1887.
3. Sloterdijk, Peter. Op. Cit. Page 28.

 

Esmeralda Gómez Galera

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