MAY 17 - 19, 2019
SAATCHI GALLERY
FIVE PROJECTS
RETROSPECTIVE DRAWING EXHIBITION 1992-2019 /
REDFERN GALLERYDAILY PERFORMANCES OF BLACKBIRD SONG /
A COLLABORATION BETWEEN FILMMAKER ISHMAEL ANNOBIL AND LINDA KARSHANFILM VIEWING OF BLACKBIRD SONG & FOUND OBJECT : EN MARCHE /
A COLLABORATION BETWEEN FILMMAKER ISHMAEL ANNOBIL AND LINDA KARSHANDRAW FORUM PANEL DISCUSSION /
EQUILIBRIO - WITH LINDA KARSHAN AND RICHARD DAVEYCATALOGUE LAUNCH /
EQUILIBRIO (2018) & THE LIBRARY FOR L’AQUILA (2019)
Installation view of Blackbird Song / Found Object : En Marche, a diptych of walked drawings by Linda Karshan, created in collaboration with filmmaker Ishmael Annobil. © Ishmael Annobil
RETROSPECTIVE DRAWING EXHIBITION 1992-2019 / REDFERN GALLERY
The first drawing by Linda Karshan to enter the British Museum was purchased from The Redfern Gallery in 1994. 25 years later, we are delighted to present a retrospective selection of her drawings from 1992-2019, proving her natural progression from graphic to performative drawing action. That 'drawing action' is now played out in space--in rooms and places selected for their resonance with her cultural journey. These new, walked drawings have been conceived, and filmed, in collaboration with Ishmael Annobil. In several of them the sound has been recorded to highlight the importance of sonic elements in Karshan's work.
Guided by what she calls her “inner choreography,” Karshan makes spare, monochromatic, abstract prints and drawings that serve as direct reflections of the process of their making. Though she began her career producing expressive compositions, in 1994 she developed a performance-based method for making work, in which every mark is associated with her rhythmic and regulated breathing, her counter-clockwise turning of the paper, the motion of her entire body, and the musical way in which she counts off increments of time. Karshan’s method results in iterative images of intersecting lines, forming grids, geometric shapes and patterns, and, sometimes, ordered yet loosely scribbled marks repeating across the page.
BLACKBIRD SONG & FOUND OBJECT : EN MARCHE / A COLLABORATION BETWEEN FILMMAKER ISHMAEL ANNOBIL AND LINDA KARSHAN
(a diptych of ‘walked drawings’)
In this groundbreaking genre, Karshan’s feet become her drawing points, approaching historical spaces in the same way she approaches the paper medium. She coalesces with each space to enact walked lines and movements that embody her internal rhythm and form. Following the patterns of her breath and her intuitive “inner choreography”, Karshan walks in precise patterns of straight lines that recall her drawings on paper, sometimes stopping to embellish a particular point with a few steps of dancelike footwork. As she moves through each space, Karshan’s footsteps resound off the walls and floors in an interplay of echoes and rhythms to create auditory portraits. The artist herself becomes a living presence giving voice to the place itself.
Shot at the Saatchi Gallery in collaboration with filmmaker Ishmael Annobil, this diptych is part of a series of Karshan’s new work in the media art idiom.
DAILY PERFORMANCES OF BLACKBIRD SONG / A COLLABORATION BETWEEN FILMMAKER ISHMAEL ANNOBIL AND LINDA KARSHAN
The Redfern Gallery presents Blackbird Song, a ‘walked drawing’ performance on the Saatchi Gallery stairs performed daily during DRAW ART FAIR 2019.
The live Saatchi performance replicated the Diptych of Blackbird Song Linda created in collaboration with filmmaker Ishmael Annobil.
DRAW FORUM PANEL DISCUSSION / WITH FILM SCREENINGS AND CATALOGUE LAUNCH
Panel Discussion with Linda Karshan on her recent publications, exhibitions and installations in Venice and L’Aquila, Italy, with the curators Richard Davey and Roberta Semeraro, respectively (Equilibrio, Venice, 2018; Library for L’Aquila, L’Aquila, 2019). Moderated by Allison Wucher, Studio Manager to Linda Karshan.
Film Screenings
The conversations will be accompanied by Ishmael Annobil’s photo montage capturing the selection process for Linda’s Equilibrio exhibition and the films ‘Silhouette in Balance’ and ‘A Library for L’Aquila’ by Marco Agostinelli. Finally, a screening of the original short performative film work by Karshan and Ishmael Annobil will be presented as a significant development to Karshan’s practice to emerge during the Equilibrio exhibition in Venice.
Catalogue Launch
The Library for L’Aquila by Linda Karshan
The catalogue for, The Library for L’Aquila, a permanent installation of Karshan’s ’SOUNDINGS’ work and Tower of Books, installed in the iconic library in the Italian city devastated by an earthquake in 2009.
Equilibrio - Linda Karshan - Art Architecture and Sacred Geometry in conversation
Essays by curator Richard Davey
Foreword by the Abbot Norberto Villa and the director of the Abbey Carmelo Grasso.
Afterword by curator Elisabetta Bresciani
Photographic essay by Sam Holgate-Davey
Artworks by Linda Karshan
The catalogue launched to accompany the Equilibrio exhibition of Karshan’s work in San Giorgio Maggiori Abbey, Venice, 2018.
