Alex Farrar Secondary Emotions (i)
Opening: Tuesday 10 May from 5 - 7 pm
de Appel, Prins Hendrikkade 142, Amsterdam
From the moment you climb up, the decision that you want to be studying with a real book in a grown-up sofa, you are indebted to knowledge and literature. While your feet do not even touch the ground, you consume, the often cruel, history of mankind, getting overwhelmed by the endlessness of it.
In a series of related sculptures Alex Farrar shows the invisible side of the artist's creative process in the intimate surroundings of the studio. Alone and withdrawn the delayed decisions will very gradually establish new work. The artist is continuously deliberating and contemplating. Farrar portrays the subtle doubts and inner inhibitions that are inherently linked to the artist’s practice.
By means of residues of the work process Farrar subtly explores and visualizes the searching mind and soul of the artist. On display are imprints of lashes that the artist found on the floor of his studio. Halve bitten nails reformed in lead become allegories and milestones of the floundering artist.
Alex Farrar produces work in which the meaning of everyday objects depends on the viewer, the location and the duration of the presentation. The viewer connects with the exhibited work, which leads to uncertain situations, with an open ended result.
The halved sofas isolate you from, and connect you with your imaginary other-half on the other-half of the sofa that may be at Dürst Britt & Mayhew Gallery in The Hague, in Farrar’s studio in de Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, or a private presentation in a former monastery in La Guiche, France.