TangentProjects' Inaugural Show:  Art of Occupation 11 - 21 September 2008



Emily Candela, 'Fire' 2008
Video rear-projection, tracing paper, masking tape
1 min 9 sec

'Fire' addresses the modern tension between guilt and desire that attends urban development and financial growth. It references London's historical imagination of apocalypse by transposing compositional elements used to portray the Great Fire of 1666 onto the modern landscape of Canary Wharf, a new financial district in the capital. Deliberately makeshift aspects mix with real footage, and the video employs compositing techniques that echo the composited landscapes of 19th century Romantic landscape painters. It is an investigation of the "destructive event" within a formal scheme that falls apart itself.


Cedric Christie, ‘Barrier’ after Eyal Wiezman 2008; Florescent Light Fittings

“1968 was about the ‘Barrier’.
2008 is still about the ‘Barrier’, they’re just older now, and where we used to have industry we now have import.

Minimalism was great but that was then, now is now. I am only able to look at minimalism now as if looking at pictures of old friends. For me minimalism in 2008 can only be broken, and maybe the next lot can fix it.”

Karen D'Amico 'Shift' 2008; mixed media

Karen’s work focuses on the devising of various groupings and systems as agencies of connecting and interpreting notions surrounding identity/legacy, accumulated histories, and sense of place. By incorporating maps, text, assemblage and the photographic image in her work, she juxtaposes and manipulates objects and images in an attempt to order, contain and re-present them in various contexts. Her work, Shift looks at European migration patterns, specifically denoting the top five and bottom five destinations of choice for Europeans migrating to other countries. Karen studied at Chelsea College of Art and later at Central Saint Martins, where she received her BA in Fine Art in 2004. She has exhibited in London and internationally, and her work is in corporate and private collections.

Simon Fraser
Sound Engineer, DJ & Musician Simon Fraser presented a site specific sound composition specially produced for the opening night of ‘Art of Occupation’. Simon's forthcoming projects include the production of his own music and engineering, recording and production for a variety of live bands.

The elevator project draws upon peoples occupation of space. Each elevator ride involves a new and different journey that evokes new thoughts in a  varying acoustic, from small passenger lifts to large goods lifts. Random boxes shared with strangers, or not as the case may be. Whispers, imposed conversation, or lack of.

By riding elevators all over London choosing to record these interesting spaces, capturing on audio these unique moments in time. These journeys are blended to form a site specific sound-scape of interleaving moments in spaces, often short lived, and how they were chosen to be occupied in that brief moment in time. This piece was performed in an elevator within the gallery space, produced specifically for the ‘Art of Occupation’ exhibition.


Helene Kazan, 'Mark 1' 2008; Concrete, timber and galvanised steel clout nails.

Helene Kazan’s work is rooted in drawing practice and interpretations of architectural process. As an artist with dual British/Arabic citizenship for ‘Art of Occupation’ Helene has created what on the surface appears to merely be a direct translation of a drawing into a 3D structure. However this structure also represents the manifestation of day to day anxieties which occur as simple doodles. The structure elevates these doodles, and makes the emotions that create them concrete and monstrous. The use of the laid bare concrete in constructing this piece highlights both its strengths and weaknesses as a material. As well as referencing other works such as Rachel Whiteread’s ‘House’ and Peter Eisenman’s ‘Holocaust Memorial’ in Berlin. Helene graduated from Wimbledon School of Art with a First Class BA Honours in Fine Art Painting in 2004.


Steve Smith, ‘London Stone – Equivalent VIII, I’ 2008
‘London Stone – Equivalent VIII, II’ 2008
‘London Stone – Equivalent VIII, III’ 2008
London Stock Brick

Steve Smith's "London Stone-Equivalent viii-Parts i to iii" have been assembled to respond directly to the themes of 'Art of Occupation'. These three pieces using London stock bricks are inspired by Carl Andre's controversial "Equivalent viii" acquired by the Tate in 1972, the year of Smith's birth. These bricks have been scavenged from the river Thames, and are a signifier of London’s architectural and social history. They are part of an continuing project entitled "London Stone".


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