Kiosk: Directors' Commentary by Eddie Clemens

Kiosk: Directors' Commentary
Eddie Clemens

Exhibition preview: Friday 10 July, 5:30pm
Exhibition runs: 11 July – 23 August 2020
Exhibition talk with Eddie Clemens: Saturday 11 July, 2pm

The Kiosk was a small, self-contained exhibition space that operated between 2000 and 2010 on the corner of High and Lichfield Streets in Christchurch’s city centre. Originally commissioned and designed by the Oblique Trust, programming and administration of the Kiosk were handed over to The Physics Room Trust in 2003.

While the Kiosk was much-loved it was often abused by passers-by. In ten years it played host to over 100 projects and then, in late 2010, it mysteriously disappeared. According to the Kiosk website it “departed on a voyage to the future!”

In this exhibition of new work by Eddie Clemens, the Kiosk makes a return. Using video, performance, and sculptural installation, Clemens will explore the history of the Kiosk through a number of perspectives including his own exhibition history, as well as the institutionally-recorded history via website text, and histories collected from past artists, staff, and Directors.

In Kiosk: Directors’ Commentary, the roof of the Kiosk is reimangined as a stand up paddle board, which will support Clemens on a cinematic journey of homage along the Ōtākaro Avon River and out to sea. Alongside this film, Clemens’ three Kiosk works (he currently holds the record for most solo shows inside the Kiosk) will be re-made and re-presented. Blade in Gum (2003) which explored the urban legend of razor blade stuck to slides in water parks and playgrounds, Blade in Phone (2009), and The God Particle (2010) where he sliced through the Kiosk’s neighbour Phil Price’s Nucleus sculpture with a high-powered laser.

During the exhibition, past Kiosk exhibitors are encouraged to bring their work in to be displayed alongside Clemens’ work. Further details will be announced soon. Please contact michelle@physicsroom.org.nz to register your interest.

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Eddie Clemens’ practice takes place in the interstices between film, performance and sculpture. He combines fabrication, prototyping, video editing, and photography to unlock unconventional, orthogonal avenues of investigation. Clemens’ works form an ongoing discussion around the idea that the artefacts of physical culture are carriers for narratives, links in an expansive and cryptic informational matrix that is indistinguishable from the everyday. Eddie Clemens has been the recipient of several commissions and residencies; most notably, Auckland City Public Library Light Commission where he created The Pinball Lanterns. Clemens has also been the recipient of The Olivia Spencer Bower Residency, The Frances Hodgkins Fellowship, and the Youkobo Artspace Tokyo Residency. Key exhibitions include First Edition, Third Hand, Bowerbank Ninow (2019); Clone Cities, Te Tuhi Art Gallery, Auckland (2016); AUCKLAND JEAN'S SHOP, Youkobo Artspace, Tokyo, Japan (2015); Ask the dust: 2003 - 2013, Rotorua Museum (2013); Total internal reflection, The Gus Fisher Gallery, University of Auckland (2012); The Obstinate Object, City Gallery Wellington (2012); and De-building, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetū (2011). Clemens is currently working with Wellington Sculpture Trust on a permanent public sculpture Fibre-optic Colonnade Car Wash.

Special thanks to Signtech The Signmasters for their generous support of this exhibition.