A solo exhibition by Magnus Quaife Preview Thurs 6th November 6pm - 8pm Fri 7th November – Sat 13th December 2008 Wednesday – Saturday 12pm – 5pm
“A person suffering from earache saw sparks and balls of light in the eye during each attack, as long as the pain lasted.” Theory of Colours, Goethe.
For his second solo show at The International 3 Magnus Quaife presents an exhibition of disparate paintings. Each completed painting, whether rendered in watercolour, acrylic or oils, is formed with no ‘house’ style. The ambiguity of authorship is intentional pertaining to an examination of authenticity that is highlighted throughout this artists practice.
Some are complex collaged constructions that create a unique image drawn from many accessible sources: Brush strokes from Velasquez and Cezanne are microscopically magnified and fused with iconic images of riots and revolution jump cutting between European cinema and You Tube. Others are simple, single shots of public art or carefully depicted Polaroids of found studio sculptures.
In these works Quaife always has an eye on history. Each painting stands as the predication of a fictional, or at least created, apposition, a created space where the histories of cultural and political myth, of science and art are rewritten. Histories that would normally guide us through the confusion of an unknowable past toward a potential future are shuffled and re-dealt. In exhibition these images shape a visual experience that demonstrates a place between positivist certainty and constructivist subjectivity.
Magus Quaife was born in 1975 and gained a BA Fine Art Painting from Chelsea School of Art and Design in 1997 and an MA Fine Art from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2001. Recent exhibitions include: This is the Gallery and the Gallery is Many Things, Eastside Projects; Rotate, Contemporary Art Society, London; openended, Rhys and Hannah Presents, Bristol; Let me tell you a story, Porta 33, Funchal, Portugal.
For further information and images please contact Laurence Lane on 07960 038 063.
MCMLXVIII – Ben Sadler
Magnus asked me at an opening at an art gallery, where he was soon to hang some of his work, if I would write something about his paintings for his upcoming show at International 3. Later on in the evening I dropped him off at the train station. The next day I found a copy of Roland Barthes’ ‘Writing Degree Zero’ tucked under the passenger seat of my 2002 Fiat Punto. The book has sat on an IKEA coffee table in my living room for a few weeks. I have studied the book’s cover quite thoroughly. It is a simple design: ‘Roland Barthes’ is printed in large dark maroon letters under which ‘Writing Degree Zero’ is printed in black at the same font size. Below these letters are the lines ‘Translated by Annette Lavers and Colin Smith’ and ‘Preface by Susan Sontag’ in the same colour as the author’s name. Behind these letters is a flat background of magnolia. I say behind but I realise that the letters and the background colour are all printed on the same surface.
The book was published in France in 1953. It is Roland Barthes’ first book and was first published in English in 1968 by the American publishers Hill and Wang. 1968 is an important date. I don’t know how many numerical keypad door locks in art galleries and institutions use 1968 as the code but I think is it probably quite disproportionately high. I have encountered a few. 1984 seems to be the other popular code.
‘Year 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.’ 1
The above sentence is perhaps as much as or more than we need to know about 1968 to understand the images that Magnus chooses to paint from that year. It is a year loaded with significance. Type ‘1968’ into Google’s image search engine and you will see what I mean. If you are disgusted at the suggestion that you might have to even look 1968 up to have an idea of its importance then I apologise. But do it anyway. Amongst the riots and the raised fists you might find two men looking at a crack in a road caused by an earthquake in Inangahua and next to that image a scanned newspaper clipping of Miss Iceland. How do these images relate to one another? What is their importance? It’s hard to know whether these questions are even worth considering. Google provides us with language in a particular style. What we choose to do with this is up to us.
I am not sure whether Magnus left his copy of ‘Writing Degree Zero’ in my car deliberately or not. I can choose to see significance in this act. I might see further significance in the fact that this edition of the book, first published in 1968, was released in 1977, the year of my birth. Or perhaps I am giving myself too much importance. Things happen, coincidences occur, details gain importance, people leave things in cars.
