Venturing Beyond:
Graffiti and the everyday utopias of the street

SOMERSET HOUSE, LONDON
03.03.2016 - 02.5.2016 

ANTWAN HORFEE (FR) / BRAD DOWNEY (US) / ELTONO (FR) / FILIPPO MINELLI (IT) / HUSKMITNAVN (DK)

LES FRERES RIPOULAIN / LUCAS DILLON (UK) / MIKE BALLARD (UK) / MISHA HOLLENBACH (AU) / NANO4814 (US)

PETRO (UK) / JASON REVOK (US) / RUSSELL MAURICE (UK) / SAEIO ( FR) / SHEPARD FAIREY (US) / SIXE PAREDES (ES) / SWOON (US)

Following the successes of Mapping the City and Futurismo Ancestral, Somerset House will again collaborate with arts organisation A(by)P to present Venturing Beyond: Graffiti and the Everyday Utopias of the Street.  As part of ‘UTOPIA 2016: A Year of Imagination and Possibility’ at Somerset House, the exhibition will explore unsanctioned public art – or graffiti – as an intrinsically utopian practice. 

Arguing against the traditionally-held belief of graffiti as a dystopian movement or ‘glorified vandalism’, Venturing Beyond: Graffiti and the Everyday Utopias of the Street will showcase the specially-commissioned work of seventeen street artists from around the globe, each of whom will produce or specially select pieces responding to this theme.  From 13 – 20 April, artists Antwan Horfée and Russell Maurice will take up residency in Somerset House’s Courtyard Rooms, providing visitors with an insight into the processes of the practice.  Working in situ, they will produce a new body of work based on the utopian themes of the exhibition.  This project space will then remain open for viewing alongside the main exhibition until 2 May. 

For the Venturing Beyond pamphlet please click HERE.

Venturing Beyond was curated by Rafael Schacter on behalf of A(by)P. Exhibition design by Mauro Bonillo.

With thanks to UCL Urban Labs, Patron, Lord & Du Plooy, NTS Radio, London Speaker Company, Coco Face, Enola Gay and Savvy Studio.

Main Exhibition Text

“Thinking means venturing beyond”
Ernst Bloch, 1959

To “venture beyond” is to take a risk for something more. It can be an attempt to physically breach a space, or a desire to form a new way of thinking about the world; it contains the promise of the possible.

Graffiti not only compels its practitioners to transcend architectural as much as aesthetic boundaries, legal as much as visual limitations, but also incites them to form new ways of thinking and acting in the world, venturing beyond the well-worn systems of society. This exhibition presents new artworks that address this - the fundamentally utopian nature of graffiti.

The works presented here examine concepts such as community and adventure, the passions and emotions graffiti engenders and the visual boundaries it exceeds. Each explores the way it breaks new ground and forges new possibilities. The way it challenges social, legal and aesthetic norms and the ways in which it strives to create a utopia not as a future ideal, but a practice set within the everyday realm of the street.

Antwan Horfeé [exhibition works]

Blur 1 / Blur 2 / Blur 3
2016
Acrylic on Paper
57 x 76.5cm (each)

Devilishly warped and abstracted, Antwan Horfee’s works draw a huge inspiration from early 20th Century cartoons – whilst also managing to retain the anarchic spirit they often contained. For Venturing Beyond, Horfee’s specially created Blur series explores both a set of unusual landscapes beyond the realm of the everyday (with a healthy dose of fungi) as well as showing us the stylistic innovations that his years of graffiti practice have come to enable.

Antwan Horfeé [residency / project space]

Brad Downey

(Untitled) Dreamcatchers
2016
Wall Plugs
Dimensions Variable

Scattered throughout the exhibition space, Downey’s works for Venturing Beyond remain almost entirely invisible for the majority of their two month existence. Producing a range of site-specific patterns and designs using the most mundane of objects, commonplace wall plugs (of a variety of colours and sizes), Downey’s works have been installed directly behind other artists’ pieces. The designs produced will appear only once a week, for 30 minutes, when these frontispiece works are briefly removed.

Downey’s wall plugs can be understood to be literally venturing beyond: They not only exceed the physical restrictions of the gallery but also transfigure a utilitarian object into an aesthetic one. What’s more, they also attempt to provoke the viewers’ imagination: to venture beyond thought, to imagine the object that one can often not even see.

Eltono

Footpaths (Footpath 1, Footpath 2, Footpath 3, Footpath 4)
2016
Drawing and Mixed Media on Paper
70 x 100cm (each)

Footpath Documentation
2016
Video Documentation
2 minutes

In his most recent projects, Eltono has been using the act of walking to create his art. After working in the street for more than twenty years, walking in the city evolved from a necessary activity into a pleasurable one providing unlimited inspiration. For Venturing Beyond, Eltono explores new ways of moving in the public space carrying out experiments somewhere between the dérive (what Guy Debord termed a ‘technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances’) and generative art (in which decisions emerge through a system of chosen regulations rather than the artists pure will). Using the Somerset House courtyard as his medium, Eltono has created four drawings (based on four different walking experiments), which visitors can reproduce and reenact themselves.

Filippo Minelli

Shape E/R
2015
Pigment Print, Hahnemuhle Baryta Paper, Mounted on Dibond. Edition of 3+1 AP
80 x 120cm

Shape D/Z
2012
Pigment Print, Hahnemuhle Baryta Paper. Edition 1/50
40 x 60cm

Flag US A/A
2016
Pigment print, Silk Flag, Mounted
50 x 70cm

The Only Emergency is the Absence of Emergency
2016
Painted Pigment Print, Hahnemuhle Baryta Paper, Mounted on Dibond, Framed
50 x 70cm

Mystery is the Only Thing Worth Knowing
2016
Unique, painted pigment
Hahnemuhle baryta paper, mounted on dbond, framed
90 x 60cm

The collective title for Filippo’s series of five works, “The Only Emergency is the Absence of Emergency”, comes from the work of German philosopher Martin Heidegger. For Filippo, this expression is a motivating force behind his desire to expose the hidden character of the everyday, here through playfully utilising the aesthetics of politics in order to expose more personal thoughts and emotions. Filippo is conducting a number of smoke performances on site at Somerset House during Venturing Beyond.

HUSKMITNAVN

The Shadow
2015
Ink on paper
18 x 18cm 

Escapism
2015
Ink and acrylic on paper
18 x 24cm

Busy Doing Nothing
2015
Ink on paper18 x 24cm

Watching Out
2015
Ink on paper
20 x 20cm

Roll Up
2015
Acrylic and crayon on paper, acrylic on glass
30 x 30cm

With a style self-proclaimed as “melancholy Walt Disney”, the Danish artist Huskmitnavn (translation: Remember My Name) has became notable for his use of perpetually novel, yet instantly recognisable characters. Using these figures as witty mediums for commenting on the absurdities of everyday life, Husk, who has a notable background in the graffiti culture, has here turned his sharp focus inwards on to this subculture. Describing his works for Venturing Beyond, he writes, “I have created five drawings in my studio about how my life used to be before I had one”.

Les Frères Ripoulain

Blur Book
2012 / 2016
Film and digital photographs from the graffiti “Black Book” of the artists, mosaic, photo corners, fingerprints, Black Book (120 g black paper, glassine, plastic comb). 40 pages.
21 x 29.7cm (each).

Negatifx
2016
Logo, wallet, digital printing. 15 x 10 x 0.3cm.
Digital images, digital prints on paper Fuji Crystal Archive Paper. 10 x 8.3cm (each).
Notice, on thermal paper printing. Dimensions Variable.
Artist Edition, cutting mat, glass.

Blur Book is a version of a graffiti artist’s “Black Book” (in which they collect photographs or sketches of their works). In this case however, the graffiti images have been pixelated, leaving only the context of their implementation. Les Freres here focus our attention on the performative doing of graffiti as well as the importance of the site specific context in which these works exist.

In Negatifx however, we can find a selection of 36 images of urban interventions undertaken by the pair between 2006 and 2016. The images are presented in print format within a “NegatifX” pocket, evoking the Parisian print laboratory most favoured by local graffiti artists, Negatif+. The payment receipt included within the box contains specific  information about the intervention and its context.

Lucas Dillon

The Sound of Confusion
2015
Charcoal on Paper
57 x 76cm

The Eternal Drunk (Throwing Beans)
2015
Charcoal on Paper
57 x 76cm

The Blind Leading The Blind
2015
Charcoal on Paper
57 x 76cm

The Baboonaries of Us
2015
Charcoal on Paper
57 x 76cm

Organic Shrapnel (i)
2015
Charcoal on Paper
28.5 x 38cm

Expecting to Leave
2015
Charcoal on Paper
28.5 x 38cm

Lucas Dillon, the youngest artist in the exhibition, has produced a series of charcoal drawings for Venturing Beyond. Intermixing found and low imagery (from junk shop and eBay finds to cartoons and comics) with allegories taken from classical paintings, Dillon interweaves these references letting a narrative develop from within them, the strange juxtapositions and unlikely interactions then taking on a life of their very own.

Mike Ballard

The Hard Margin
2015
Oil, Spray Paint and Chewing Gum on Linen
150 x 200cm

Surface 1
2015
Oil, Spray Paint and Chewing Gum on Linen
91cm x 121cm

Ballard’s series of works are based on what he terms the “urban hieroglyphics” of utility companies working on London streets. These marks or codes indicate the presence of underground networks, a subterranean matrix that drives and maintains modern life. For Ballard, they appear as “unintentional abstract gestures that form part of the everyday visual language of the city”. Whilst made from a purely functional perspective, it is the freedom and “naivety of the marks” which appeal to Ballard, which he then translates onto canvas using his non-dominant hand. He says, “I see each paving slab as a canvas, an  almost ready-made composition of grit, paint and chewing gum. These paintings re-evaluate the visual language of urban territories and the thresholds between public and private space”. 

Misha Hollenbach

Uberraschungseffekte I
2015
Acrylic and Tar on Arches Platine & Vinyl
140 x 84cm [200 x 85.5cm]

NO NEWS (Page 4 / Page 7 / Page 24 )
2015
Enamel on Newsprint
55 x 78cm (each)

REFORMATION I,II, III
2015
Acrylic on Early XIXc Book Pages
26.5 x 18.4cm (each)

Misha Hollenbach’s practice explores methods of merging contemporary culture with a primal urge to create/decorate/demonstrate. Drawing from the legacy of Dadaism, his recent work has been concerned with a direct channeling of energy, explored and investigated through actions, both painting, mark making, automatic sculpture and random collage. Hollenbach has also recently been exploring negative space and a self-censoring of images: existing (found) material is obliterated, rendered black, resulting in new works.

Nano4814

Untitled
2016 [2011]
Acrylic on Wall
Dimensions Variable

Mixing popular imagery with wildly outlandish motifs, Nano4814’s strangely discomforting and surreal aesthetic ventures beyond the everyday in quite overt terms. For Venturing Beyond he has produced a classically utopian image, the Rainbow. For Nano however, this trope has numerous potential significations: it can act as a “door, a bridge, a pathway” leading one to different spaces or different times, yet equally represents the “calm after the storm”. It can act as an idealistic representation of the colour spectrum (“only this time in reverse”), yet so too relates to his “obsession with art as a burden, art as a curse”.

Petro (Duncan Weston)

Utopia Security Co.
2016
High-Visibility Vests and High-Visibility Boiler Suit
Dimensions Variable

High-Visibility Graffito Solutions
2016
High-Visibility Fabric and 3M Reflective Material
195 x 120cm

The British artist Petro has produced an installation exploring the material and physical possibilities enabled by high-visibility material. Not only does this material empower its users to venture into places not normally accessible (through its ability to make wearers invisible), its physical qualities coalesce with Petro’s artistic fascination with everyday beauty and play. Visitors to Venturing Beyond are encouraged to participate in Petro’s installation by donning one of his specially made Utopia Security Co. vests.

Jason Revok

_H1.A_
2015
Oil Enamel and Synthetic Polymer on Wood Assemblage
91.44 x 60.96xm

_H1.B_
2015
Oil Enamel and Synthetic Polymer on Wood Assemblage
91.44 x 60.96xm

_-5.A_MAGENTA_
2015
Oil Enamel and Synthetic Polymer on Woods Assemblage
134.62 x 121.92cm

Jason Williams, previously more famously known as Revok, made the shift toward a fine art practice around 2011. Like his previous graffiti however, Revok’s studio output is similarly intricate and complex. Using an assemblage technique, his works initially feel computer generated yet upon closer inspection reveal the artist’s hand through the objects flaws and imperfections. As a result, we see that this creation is produced by a conscious mind rather than a machine. Fusing the aesthetic of the hand-made with the mass produced, his work can be read as way to emotionally and logically charge, and thus venture beyond, the alienated production processes of our society.

Russell Maurice [exhibition works]

Infinity Again / Smurf Blue Buff / Gassy Crying Dog
2016
Emulsion on MDF / Emulsion, Cotton, Nylon and Nylon String on MDF / Emulsion and Acrylic on Cotton
Dimensions Variable

Maurice’s participation in Venturing Beyond presented him with an atmosphere where he felt comfortable to produce a work in which Graffiti could take centre stage. As he says: “For years I haven’t felt like I was able to use letters because I don’t really bomb much anymore, it's like some unwritten rule that I'm not able to make Graf work. But as we're in Utopia, I can do what I like… so here are some letters! I treated this piece (of Graf) the same way I do my alchemic cartoon work,  abstracting and dismantling the form whilst imbuing some kind of strange energy to the letters (as in all Graffiti: like a Neon sign struck by lightning)”.

Russell Maurice [residency / project space]

Saeio

Oil 1 / Oil 2  / Oil 3
2015
Oil on Paper
70cm x 100cm (each)

LACQUER/INK 1
2015
Lacquer and Ink on Canvas
150 x 180cm

Nolens Volence [with RIZOTE]
2015
Video
8 minutes 25 second

Saeio is one of the leading graffiti artists in contemporary Paris, his works ever-present throughout the entire city. Highly conceptual as well as extravagantly embellished, his works for Venturing Beyond explore what graffiti artists call the “buff”, the institutional erasure of their works. This desire for a city without graffiti serves simply to produce an entirely new aesthetic however, an interactive visuality produced by artist and eraser. Saeio’s works here depict this process, this clash of two differing utopias.

In the accompanying video (produced with fellow PAL crew member Rizote), Saeio further explores this interaction between eraser and erased. Working openly and illegally in public, the two artists produce a form of graffiti which follows the aesthetic of the eraser - the blocked out colours and shapes that the graffiti removers utilise, the legal mark making they employ - whilst subverting it through their freeform, spontaneous style.

Shepard Fairey

Society of Destruction
2015
Silkscreen and Mixed Media Collage on Paper, HPM. Edition 8/8
76.2 x 101.6cm

Endless Power
2014
Silkscreen and Mixed Media Collage on Paper, HPM. Edition 11/14
63.5 x 90.17cm

Coup D’Etat
2012
Silkscreen and Mixed Media Collage on Wood, HPM (Wood). Edition AP
45.72 x 60.96cm

Fairey’s three works for Venturing Beyond focus on both utopian and dystopian power; the importance of dissent in Society of Destruction and Coup d’Etat, the dangers of the oil industry in Endless Power. Like much of Fairey’s work, all three collages utilise the aesthetic of mass media in order to transmit their message, subverting the commonly used images of both state and corporate propaganda. They urge us to participate, to stand up and be counted.

Sixe Paredes

Untitled 1, 2, and 3 (Futurismo Series)
2015
Acrylic and Spray on Paper
70cm x 100cm (each)

Although initially emerging as a secondary layer to his figurative works, the vast vocabulary of symbols, numbers and shapes which the Spanish artist Sixe Paredes has created act as a personal, enigmatic code for his entire life. Deeply influenced by Peruvian and Amazonian visual culture in particular, his triptych for Venturing Beyond aims to create a symbolic and geometric language that interconnects all the elements of the Universe, a harmony between colour and vibration. For Sixe, this dream of a “universal language with which all humanity could join and speak together” is the very essence of Utopia.

Swoon

Milton II (Diogenes)
2015
Block print on fabric with coffee stain and hand painted acrylics
170.2 x 226.1cm

Chopper
2015
Paper Cutouts (Laser cuts), and acrylic paint on wood
95.25 x 86.4cm

Swoon’s twi works for Venturing Beyond provide us with two very different portraits. The principal work, Milton II / (Diogenes), is a portrait of Swoon’s father made in the months following his passing away just last year. Diogenes refers to one of the first Cynics, the Greek philosopher Diogenes of Sinope, a man who embraced a life of poverty and who argued that virtue should be revealed in action rather than theory. Diogenes embodied the very message he was trying to convey; he mocked authority through his personal degradation and argued that independence was happiness. Swoon’s further work, Chopper, depicts an eccentric taxi driver she met during her stay in India.

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