Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson
Black Appetite
5 September – 10 October 2015

PRIVATE VIEW: SATURDAY 5 September 2015, 5-8pm

JOEY RAMONE is very proud to host the 1st solo exhibition in the gallery by Icelandic artist Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson. The exhibition which occupies both gallery and project spaces opens on Saturday 5 September from 5-8pm and runs till Saturday 10 October.

The environment is a dark mysterious place. Tunnels lead you on to the sweet cool old milky ocean. In the city yard a lonely tree breathes while the heatwave creeps. An oversized puzzle dangles around. A bird spins, bombastic and fantastic. Feel free to tango with the curvy steel. Easier done with the four hands of two minds.

Narrative builds as drawings are edited side by side. Like frames of a comic, images for a graphic novel, theatre sets really. Any sequence will do for a potential live activation – a kaleidoscopic storytelling performance. Me performing the object – the object performing – the object performing me. You’ll fly with me – I’ll fly with you – let us fly like we’ve never flown before.

During the exhibition period a ‘Black Appetizer’ will take place – a choose-your-own performance that activates the works on display. The structure of the performance will be based on a selection of works within the exhibition made by an invited guest. This unique performance takes place during the ‘Kunst in de Witte de Withkwartier’ (2nd weekend of September). The ‘Black Appetizer’ is a nomadic context-unspecific storytelling piece retrieving from spoken language. Linguistic elements are replaced with objects, songs and gestures. A mobile concert. The ‘Black Appetizer’ will set the table for more dishes to be served.

Styrmir Örn Guðmundsson (IS) lives in Warsaw. He is a storyteller, a performer, an object maker and writer. He has a love for the absurd, by which is meant less an obsessive passion for the ridiculous, nonsensical or the odd, than a tender and caring attitude: he takes care of the absurd, he helps it to develop, he gives it a place alongside everything else where it can be your most disturbing neighbor and your best friend. Styrmir adapts written pieces, drawings and things into live performances that serve as an exhibition device for autonomous objects.