BE-HEAD: Andipa, London
"Be-Head artists confront the genre of the portrait head on: they approach the head not so much as part of an individual but as part of humanity..."
Andipa Contemporary invites you to experience the unexpected. On 13 November this Knightsbridge fine art gallery will become a test bed laboratory for celebrated Danish performance artist Søren Dahlgaard who plans to drop bread dough upon intrepid sitters' heads in the name of contemporary art. With a wide variety of sitters aged from 6 to 96, the event promises to be experimental, radical and most of all fun.
Dahlgaard's performance is a preface to Andipa Contemporary's forthcoming exhibition Be-Head. The show which commences 18 November is an exciting new move by Andipa Gallery who have been operating from their Knightsbridge premises for more than 40 years and are more widely known for modern and contemporary masters such as Picasso, Matisse and Damien Hirst. The challenge however is perhaps fitting for this exhibition in which the YBA artist Gavin Turk, among other contemporary names, confront the traditional genre of the portrait in a variety of new and unexpected ways.
Be-Head artists confront the genre of the portrait head on: they approach the head not so much as part of an individual but as part of humanity. Where there is a sitter, his or her individuality is overwhelmed by the process of painting, performance or sculpture. Others work only from the imagination, others reinterpret (mock, even) the great tradition of portraiture by using unusual, low materials like brick or plaster or dough. Where the noble bronze is used, it does not conform to the 'traditional' scale. It is made minute, almost insignificant and reproduced.
The exhibition will take place at Andipa Gallery, Knightsbridge, London, from the 18 November to 15 December 2010, with a performance by Soren Dahlgaard: 13 November, 2.00pm - 4.00pm.
