»catherine griffiths : SOLO IN [ ] SPACE« A documentation

A documentation of »catherine griffiths : SOLO IN [ ] SPACE«, a survey of selected works exhibited at The Space Gallery, Shanghai, 2019.

The exhibition was curated and organised by DUAN Zhihua, with curatorial team, LI Haoyuan, Jennifer Liu, WANG Weiying, Kelly ZHENG, QUAN Wenyue, WANG Yifei, ZHENG Ran and The Space Gallery partner (SHEN Liqiong, GAO Jie).

The post-exhibition book »catherine griffiths : SOLO IN [ ] SPACE« A documentation is “an ‘installation on an installation on an installation’ — works made over time and space, reconfigured, re-contextualised and responsive. It is a marker, fragments from an evolving series of works, large and small, that span wide, shoot off on tangents, make sense on examination, where dots join and a typographic thread weaves — nothing comes out of a vacuum — a mapping out. This marker is first indicated through a window installation of white lines and circles: gestural, expressive, and with intent.

What appears abstract outside on The Space Gallery window is revealed inside, pinned to the wall, an unfolded 4 metre long drawing »So far: a map of projects, a drawing« (2016). This mapping out of projects traces the interrelationships of common language (sound and graphic), spatial shift (public/private), and atmosphere (calm to chaotic), found across more than a decade of these conceptions.” — quoted from artist’s statement.

Published by Zhihua Duan and Pocca on the two-year anniversary of the exhibition, and first launched at the 2021 UNFOLD Shanghai Art Book Fair, with a talk hosted by Bananafish Books.

Included are five short essays — poetic, meditative, observational — by Leonardo Sonnoli (Italy), Liza Enebeis (Netherlands), Masayoshi Kodaira (Japan), Anastasia Genkina (Russia) and Scarlett Xin Meng (China). As well, from the archive of selected writing, Gregory O’Brien’s Body, Mind, Somehow: The Text Art of Catherine Griffiths for Art New Zealand’s 150th issue (2014), and a review of »AEIOU, a typo/sound installation« (2009) by curator, writer and researcher Dr Mercedes Vicente, give clues and insights into what simply cannot be gathered in this one space, this moment in time.

“The eloquence and refinement of Griffiths’ works belies a process which is very much about connecting, intuitively as well as intellectually, with the energy and character of a location as well as with her materials. Tellingly in this regard, her text-in-landscape works are, as she says ‘an extension of my body, of my mind, somehow.” — Gregory O’Brien, Art New Zealand, 2014 / archive, selected writings

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