Mayfair Art Weekend / Artist's talk - WORKPLACE LONDON
Jo Coupe Posy, 2017, cutout and rearranged botanical prints from Wayside and Woodland Blossoms (vol 2) by Edward Step, 1933, archival tape, dissection pins, 64 x 42 x 3 cm, 25 1/4 x 16 1/2 x 1 1/8 in (JCP0103) Courtesy the artist and WORKPLACE, UK
Saturday 1st July - 10am - 6pm Sunday 2nd July - 11am - 5pm
Jo Coupe - Artists talk: Saturday 1st July 11.30 am
Jo Coupe will be giving a talk and tour of her exhibition All That Fall all welcome RSVP atrsvp@workplacegallery.co.uk
Jo Coupe All That Fall / Joseph Beuys'Wirtschaftswert' 2017, WORKPLACE London, Courtesy the artist and WORKPLACE, UK
Jo Coupe
All That Fall
and Joseph Beuys'Wirtschaftswert'
19 May – 8 July 2017
WORKPLACE LONDON
61 Conduit Street, Mayfair
London, W1S 2GB
Thursdays to Saturdays, 10 – 6pm
WORKPLACE is pleased to announce All That Fall, the first solo exhibition of Jo Coupe at Workplace London. Bringing together Jo Coupe’s diverse sculptural practice in a wide variety of materials and media, All That Fall explores Coupe’s ongoing interest in the relationship between science and magic.
Informed by investigations into the Natural Sciences, religion, and ritualistic belief systems such as Louisiana Voodoo, Coupe’s interest in the paranormal has led to periods of research into diverse environments ranging from the industrial to the historical and the domestic. As such, her work shifts towards an analysis of objects and materials, and of the physical, cultural and metaphorical forces at play that pervade the meanings we commonly ascribe to them. Her work takes on a political significance by conflating opposing positions of hard science with folk ritual and the stereotypically gendered environments of heavy industry and the home. Utilising the homespun experimental methodologies of the amateur scientist to recreate supernatural manifestations and transient natural phenomena, Coupe employs her holistic knowledge of the natural world to create sculpture that finds both poetic resonance and a precarious instability in its material form or method of becoming.
Showing alongside Jo Coupe will be a selection of unique works from Joseph Beuys 'Wirtschaftswert' (Economic Values)series.
Jo Coupe Solid Air, 2017, Stepladders, Coloured Nylon String, Magnetic Field, Rare Earth Magnets, Dimensions Variable
Solid Air is a large-scale installation made from ladders, string and magnets. Activating the space between the gallery wall and ordinary domestic objects, Coupe engages our childlike fascination with magnetism. Anchored to a configuration of stepladders, metal discs tied to the opposite end of the string are pulled magically toward the wall of the gallery, causing them to float weightlessly in attraction. The architectural qualities of the stepladders are enhanced by the linear qualities of the taut string, which combine to map a complex and colourfully trembling matrix between a powerfully charged field beyond the wall, and the commonplace and functional resting on the floor.
Jo Coupe Bleed Now, 2012, Botanical prints, archival tape, dissection pins, 53 x 68 x 4 cm, Courtesy of the artist and WORKPLACE, UK
Four tiny bronze sculptures - a shrew, a baby blackbird, a wren and a rat's head - lie dead on slabs of engineering steel, low on the gallery floor. Their blunt presence countered by the delicate intricacies of their surface. Anatomical details such as hair, ribs and even veins under the skin are visible, pulling the viewer down into their Lilliputian world. This on-going series of found dead animals have been collected and stored by Coupe in their family freezer amongst the ice cream and other plats-de-demain. Cast at home using jewellery-casting techniques Coupe creates miniature monuments that tease our fascination with death through repulsion and curiosity.
Jo Coupe Slab (Blackbird), 2017, Bronze engineering steel, 6 x 10 x 10 cm (JCP0098)
Jo Coupe was born in 1975 in Stoke, UK. She studied Fine Art at Newcastle University and at Goldsmiths College, London. Previous exhibitions include: In and Out of Sight, UH Gallery, Hertfordshire; Easy does it Supercollider, Blackpool; Pertaining to Things Natural... Chelsea Physic Garden, London; An Archaeology 176, London; Fade Away And Radiate, Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth; Tatton Park Biennial, Give and Take at Firstsite, Colchester, You Shall Know Our Velocity at BALTIC, Gateshead. She lives and works in Gateshead, UK.
Jo Coupe Rarefied (Phalaenopsis lobii), 2008, 18ct gold, 3 x 12 x 9 cm, Courtesy the artist and WORKPLACE, UK
To view works on WORKPLACE website please click here
Workplace Gallery is a contemporary art gallery run by artists.
Based in Gateshead UK, Workplace Gallery represents a portfolio of emerging and established artists through the gallery programme, curatorial projects and international art fairs.