All Fun And Games Until Someone Gets Burnt…

Artkurio and Open Space Contemporary have announced “All Fun And Games Until Someone Gets Burnt…”, a group exhibition developed to showcase internationally known young, emerging contemporary artists from the UK, Turkey and worldwide. Supported by the Manhattan Loft Gallery in London, the exhibition proposes to discuss concepts of consumption, materiality, and objecthood in light of today’s contemporary environment.

In the age of Globalisation, once described as the latest name for imperialism by Clifford McLucas, the world has changed dramatically and rapidly, affecting economic, social, political and cultural aspects of life, which have brought not only opportunities but also challenges. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Walter Benjamin states that the mass reproduction of art has a consequence on the “aura” of the art itself. In other terms, the existence of an artwork in time and space gradually loses its function as an individual unit by means of reproduction. “All Fun And Games Until Someone Gets Burnt…” will focus on the reinterpretation of materiality and the context it plays in the 21st century, featuring emerging artists that work across disciplines such as installation, painting, sculpture, video, stitching and works on paper.

The use of materiality, value, use of consumption and acquisition of goods play a significant role in the exhibition, which acts as a social commentary on the contemporary art market, mass production and fabrication of artworks, and further explores the materiality used in relation to the value of the object. In this context, the idea of belonging and ownership also plays an important role when relating to status and self-identity. The artists included in the exhibition centrally explore and critique these concepts with a multifaceted approach, often featuring sites of consumption, acquisition of goods and tracing the histories of objects in their work.

Patrick Hough deals with critical questions around cinema, technology and museology, through an archive of historical film props. Through questioning mankind’s relationship with objects, Hough reflects on the ways in which cinematic images are indelibly embedded in our perception of history.

Ahmet Civelek’s Spoon Paintings highlight his interests in the everyday. In comparison to his previous Puzzle Paintings, these works are an amalgamation between painting and sculpture, addressing manipulation, reconstruction and destruction of the object with a distinctly humorous undertone.

Working and living in Istanbul, Güneş Terkol considers the relationships and social conditions of found materials she has encountered in her immediate environment, in order to re-use these fabrics to construct narratives through sewing, videos, sketches and musical compositions.

Influenced by Minimalism, Abstract Art and Arte Povera Rebecca Ward’s practice surrounds the iconography of feminine gesture. Her paintings and large scale installations,experiment with a wide range of non-traditional materials including: bleach, spray paint, tape and dye.

In her ongoing Destination installation series Meriç Algün Ringborg challenges our understanding of what constitutes a nation. Ringborg concentrates on issues of identity, borders, bureaucracy and language, and assembles the objects and texts that a traveller can take while crossing a country’s border. The connections made between these objects displays the law of a nation, with each grouping of objects becoming a representation for a specific geographical space.

Consumption plays a significant role in our lives, especially in the context of Rafal Zajko’s sculptures or, in the artist’s words, “physical pieces”. Zajko dissects his pieces to their bare bones to express a diverse language; a language that questions the relationship between abstraction and figuration and performance, referencing materiality, texture and intervention. This is not to mention the technological aspect of Zajko’s work, which is often improvised and has a very DIY aesthetic.