Century Gallery
ACAVA, 1-15 Cremer Street, Shoreditch, London E2 8HD
Contemporary fine art in an artist-run gallery
Borderline
Oct 16-26, 2002
Camilia Basset, Tamaki Kawaguchi, Sunee Markosov, Suzanne Moxhay
| 3D, installation | space 1

'Borderline' implies that there is a clearly defined border between concepts such as real and unreal, fact and fiction, inside and outside. Our works invite people to look closer at this border, and to speculate that this borderline might be quite vast, and may possibly contain most of our world and experiences.

We'd like to create environments that encourage the viewer to question their perceptions of real and virtual spaces, about where we draw a border between the natural and the artificial, the real and the illusory, the purposeful and the random. There is also an element of obsession showing in some the works exhibited here, with borderline suggesting the line between feeling comfortable and uncomfortable with the degree of obsession shown in the work.

Finally, there is also a literal link to the aesthetic importance of the edges: borders in our works where the surface of the work exists as a borderline between the inside and the outside, both in the physical and in the philosophical sense.

  

Camilla Basset

My works can be described by one or more of these words - obsession, intensity and repetition. I am a big fan of the state of immersion in an interest that classifies as obsession. My work reflects this in the intense planning and patience required and the taxing levels of detail employed. The works draw from personal interests. From the Norwegian letters based around the Art and Psychosis exhibition to the stamp-sized work that mass-reproduces the portrait of a figure from popular culture, the work conveys a certain air of intensity.

I am interested that society seems to have preconceived ideas about which interests are worth nurturing, while others are seen as having a damaging effect on the obsessive's character. Interests are separated into two groups: high culture:low culture. My work sets out to question the difference in the way we are allowed to react to different aspects of our culture.

Tamaki Kawaguchi

Questioning the relationship between the interior psychic space and the outside, I employ transparent media that allow a physical depth, at once inside and beyond the boundaries of the frame — the edge of the canvas. In this work space a psychic depth is formed as an ambiguous projection of the self, a representing space devoid of surface and emptied of volume, precariously placed as a screen between the viewer and my imagination.

Sunee Markosov
In my work I try to get people to see the border between apparently contradictory concepts, and to experience this border as a vast space. I'm not necessarily hoping to enlighten them through a quiet mediation on this omnipresent border. Rather I want them to share my own, less-then-enlighted state, my anxiety that comes from seeking clear answers while knowing that none will becoming. In my 'YBA' work, the apparent statement oscillates between different meanings like in a kaleidoscope, depending on the angle or the distance from which you view the piece. And like a kaleidoscope, the piece is meant to invite you to look closer, to play around with the angles, to experience this painful fluidity of meanings, the elusiveness and the omnipresence of the Border. In my 'emerging patterns' work and in the dice piece, I broaden the subject matter by observing the border between chance and order.  

Suzanne Moxhay

I am interested in themes of virtual reality, illusion and optics. I have approached these issues through mixed media, photography and installation work. My latest project involves recreating reflections in real space. To do this I make replicas of various objects in reverse and then place them opposite the originals to create the illusion of a mirror. I am currently working in collaboration with a number of students at Chelsea to set up an exhibition of their work that will form the basis of my own installation.

The artists are all on the BA Fine Art course at Chelsea College of Art & Design.