‘Extempora’
Jason Dunne
1st - 15th March 2010
Exhibition Opening Fri 12th March from 6 - 9pm
A text written by Sam Keogh accompanied the Exhibition.
Jason Dunne worked on-site in EXCHANGE GALLERY from
the 1st to 11th of March producing an installation which was
exhibited from the 12th-14th of March. His practice is
predominantly lens-based and explores on a formal level the
relationship between time, narrative and the image. Working
with people, he invents his own subject matter in the form of
costumes, props and domestic, exotic and absurd sculptural
environments. Experiential research into religious ritual, occult
mysticism and tribal culture are drawn upon to position the
process of image-making as an active counterfoil to a regimented, secular consumerism.
In ‘Extempora’, Dunne made use of the highly visible Exchange Gallery space by experimentally revealing his often performative process of photographic production to the public. Intending to question individual authorship and control, he has invited numerous artists and performers to join him in the gallery space as ‘models’ who collaborated within the creative process. By bringing to the space nothing more than camera equipment, costumes, text & image research and sculptural materials, he aims to open up his practice to that which could not have been foreseen or planned for.
Dunne is also specifically interested in altering the way in which artists and audiences interact with the production and exhibition of contemporary art. By blurring the lines between production, exhibition and evaluation, he aims to disrupt the often routinised and formulaic activities in art practice, which allow us to act passively as consumers in the repetitive ritual of exhibition.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the artist discussed his work at 5:30 on Saturday 13th March followed by screenings of Dan Graham’s ‘Rock My Religion’ at 6:30 and Maya Deren’s ‘Divine Horsemen, Living Gods of Haiti’ from 6:30.
