Microstoria

Writing and Curating Collective -[Relay]- welcome you to 'MICROSTORIA:' a new exhibition with associated events and publication presented at Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh.

MICROSTORIA, synonymous with microhistories, refers to the small and seemingly insignificant stories, myths and folklore that punctuate and call into question the grand narratives that constitute our mutual understandings of history, nationalism and cultural traditions. Yet how to coalesce the micro-history with the macro? Each artist presented here excavates and elaborates upon selected anomalies; shining a light on individuals, circumstances, postures and events that otherwise pass unnoticed.

Multiple interpretations of truth and falsehood weave throughout the exhibition, reiterating the subjective nature of each individual’s distinction between fact and fiction. Via the artists’ extensive research, the exhibition navigates territories and geographical boundaries; traversing religious iconography, cartography, cult figures, the imperialist legacy and the shifting nature of national and cultural identities. It is through the microscopic gaze of the artists that our perception of the historical overview becomes altered, whilst simultaneously casting doubt on the act of exhibition making and the construct of art itself as a vehicle for simultaneous construction of myth.

Artists

Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc

Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc is an artist, curator and researcher interested in exploring the history of the colonial encounter and its subsequent effects on memory and identity; expressing a particular interest in how identities are made or unmade over time via conquest, expropriation, and conscious or unconscious tradition. In his work he uses video, drawing, installation and photography, as well as primary source material. Abonnenc counters collective amnesia and the erasure of traumatic experiences through his exploration of the post-colonial condition.

Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson

The Icelandic/Spanish couple Ólafur Árni Ólafsson and Libia Pérez de Siles de Castro have been working together since 1996. Situating their socially-engaged practice within the political fields of tension created as a direct result of globalisation, they specifically place the trappings and signifiers of cultural identity at an uneasy counterpoint to daily reality. The photograph included in MICROSTORIA reflects the multi-faceted approach of the duo, with their output spanning video, performance and sound installation. 'Untitled (Portrait of the artists wearing the Icelandic women’s costume; Peysuföt and Upphlutur)' sees Castro and Ólafsson utilise the performative nature of costume as a tool by which to decontruct nationalistic tendencies.

Oliver Laric

'Versions' is an ongoing project manifested across video, sculpture, talks and writings; all exploring iconoclasm - which for Laric is fundamentally ‘productive’ - and the power of the repeated image. His work is both a product of, and comment upon, the networked media age; in which bootlegs, copies, samples and remixes hold equal footing with the original. Laric suggests that iconoclasm is not the termination of an image, but rather the multiplication of that image into another possibility. For example Laric’s series of cast sculptures takes its cue from the vandalism of religious statues that occurred during the Protestant Reformation. His video works are characterised by the manipulation and restructuring of appropriated web-based imagery. 

Sean Lynch

Sean Lynch seeks out modern-day instances of folklore and mythology, representing them and drawing them to our attention through photography, film and installation. The two works selected for 'MICROSTORIA' specifically focus on landscape as a site of clashing ideologies, and the continued reinvention of his native Ireland. 'A Preliminary Sketch for the Re-appearance of Hybrazil' charts the supposed existence of a land mass off the west coast of Ireland in the Atlantic Ocean. Its intermittent appearance on maps and charts between 1325 and 1853 highlights how cartography can influence our understanding of what is accepted as real about the world we chart. In 'Latoon' the booming economic development of Ireland turns the country into a new colonizer of its own traditions and folk histories - creating a peculiar instance of tension between new and old.

Rachel Maclean

Rachel Maclean works in new media, installation, costume, performance, painting and sculpture, featuring herself as the sole actor and model throughout her diverse output. The artist postulates imagined futures as a means to understand the complexities of the present. Artificially saturated surfaces, typical of her work, accentuate the fictitious content and the possibility it holds to expose falsehoods. Alternative personas are constructed, cloned, mutated, objectified, worshipped and murdered at will. 'Over the Rainbow,' specifically conceived for the exhibition and utilising the architectural features of the gallery, purposefully evokes the tradition of the salon hang. Hovering between historical and contemporary personalities, the work cites references as disparate as Albrecht Dürer, John Baldessari and the Royal Wedding.

Alexandre Singh

Alexandre Singh is a performer and storyteller whose work encompasses a range of diverse and multi-faceted practices. In 'The Marque of the Third Stripe' the fetishistic nature of the consumer‘s relationship with global brands is explored though the artist’s personal relationship with Adidas. Singh’s intricate and gothic tale on the life of the company’s founder Adol Dassler, with it’s clearly subjective narrator, completes the demolition of certainty within cultural mythmaking and storytelling. This work is an instance of the artists ongoing thesis; taking ‘pop art’ away from reproduction of commercial imagery and instead exploring how consumer products impact directly on our lives by manipulating our personal outlook.

Helene Sommer

The video montage 'Variations of Max' takes the seminal text 'Syncronoptische Weltgeschichte' (Syncronoptical World History) and the biography of its author Arno Peters as its starting point. The book’s controversial presentation of colour-coded strands within a universal history is applied to Sommer’s personal biography and family history, blurring distinctions between historical fact and imagination. History here is understood as simple perception stemming from personal beginnings and interwoven with the broad brushstrokes of time and space in the Eurocentric historical narrative. The structure of the work seems to follow a hyperlinked method of research, resulting in the juxtaposition of images and statements that differ from the voice-over.

Kristoffer Svenberg

Working in video documentary, and stemming from his practice in photography, Svenberg combines Gonzo-style journalism with introspective performance. In 'The Barber Shop,' interpretation and religious difference manifest themselves in human action that is seemingly mundane, yet simultaneously provocative. His work contests the ethical implications of recording and interference within the film making process. Svenberg’s interventionist approach and his visibility within the film results in his potential culpability for activities assumed under the auspices of the missionary group 'Surfing The Nations.' The disjointed structure, teamed with his ambiguous standpoint, leaves the audience increasingly uncomfortable.