9Events 

Royal College of Art, London 2016

Tina O’Connell and Neal White, presented by Anony Hudek of Objectif Exhibitions, Antwerp.

The exhibition was part of a programme in which leading curators were invited to select artsts for the Royal College of Art Dyson Gallery. Parts of the exhibition were based on works Deep Freeze which you can read about here.

Key elements of the installation were constructed utilising bitumen – the residue left from extraction/oil production, and a material central to O’Connell’s work for two decades. In particular the molds and forms used to create ‘Deep Freeze’ that were originally exhibited in Antwerp are reshown as an unfolding series of event-structures (Latham). 

The exhibition included altered film ‘found/discovered’ on the intenet that repositions Rio Tinto mining practices in relation to the anthropocentric impact of its own extraction industries.

The exhibition also included found event-structures that link a philosophy of social practice or 'the incidental' with artistic artefacts, readymades etc.

Central to the project was the legacy of John Latham, whose own artworks link together time with 'incidental' practice and the term event-structure - a form of temporal sculpture in this case.

As a philosophy that was also part of APG (Artist Placement Group), incidental value can also alter human action and is here articulated using found non-materials (destroyed, waste, found etc) and so embodies a critical link between artistic and critical social engagements.

The discussion about the legacy of 'incidental practice' was further developed through an ‘Incidental Meeting’ on March 18th, organised with Barbara Steveni and reunited key members of APG and O+I. It had just one agenda item; ‘unfinished business’.