Casey Kaplan

Casey Kaplan is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Liam Gillick (b. 1964 Aylesbury, UK).

Discussion Bench Platforms are a series of structures that continue the artist’s interest in the legacy of applied modernism and the tension between functional and aesthetic constructions. Powder-coated
aluminum benches accompany a sequence of new discussion platforms. The function of the discussion platform as a designated space for thought is amplified by this pragmatic addition.

On the walls and windows of the gallery, sixteen new prints present a narrative derived from the first scene of Gillick’s play A Volvo Bar, that was the ‘short scenario’ part of his retrospective, “Three Perspectives and a short Scenario”, first performed at the Kunstverein München. Gillick’s eight-act play adapts the exhibition space as a stage on which social phenomena of a post-industrial society are played out, presenting a core aspect in Gillick’s work - the negotiation of models of communality. The prints here combine early woodcut imagery from pre-industrial Europe with the opening lines of the play.

Everything Good Goes was first presented at the exhibition of the Vincent Awards at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, 2008. Earlier that year, Gillick was in the process of preparing and editing a series of texts, clips and recordings derived from a series of lectures presented at unitednationsplaza, Berlin in 2006. While reviewing the content of the lectures the artist built a 3D computer model of the set, a factory, from the film Tout va Bien (Everything Goes Good), 1972, directed by French political activists and filmmakers, Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin.

A telephone call was made to the Fly collective in New York and recorded. The phone call outlined the issues that the film’s producers should think about while documenting the process of building the 3D computer model of the factory. The resulting film is a portrait of an artist working and thinking while the original telephone recording is played as a soundtrack. The work is a reflection on a context, and an outline of the artist’s main concerns over the last few years.

Liam Gillick represented Germany at the 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009. In April, an extensive survey exhibition “Liam Gillick: One
Long Walk – Two Short Piers” will open at the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik, Deutschland. The most
comprehensive monograph of Liam Gillick’s work to date will be published in accordance with this exhibition. His traveling
retrospective “Three Perspectives and a Short Scenario”, 2008-2009, recently closed its ‘third perspective’ at the Museum of
Contemporary Art Chicago, organized by Dominic Molon, after the first and second were showcased at the Witte de With,
Rotterdam organized by Nicolaus Schafhausen and the Kunsthalle, Zürich organized by Beatrix Ruf, respectively. Liam Gillick
publishes texts that function in parallel to his artwork including: Proxemics (Selected writing 1988-2006), JRP-Ringier (2007);
Factories in the Snow by Lilian Haberer, JRP-Ringier (2007); Meaning Liam Gillick, MIT Press (2009); and Allbooks, Book
Works, London (2009). Other recent solo exhibitions include: “Executive Two Litre GXL,” 1 MAK: Austrian Museum of Applied
Arts / Contemporary Art, curated by Bärbel Vischer, Vienna through March 21; and “Everything Good Goes,” Meyer Kainer,
Vienna, through March 13. Liam Gillick lives and works in New York and London.