Retrogression
Beth Collar & Eoghan Ryan
24/04/2019 – 24/05/2019
Retrogression is the logical continuation of ongoing conversations between artists Beth Collar and Eoghan Ryan. Their first show, Juvenilia (2018) took as a point of conceptual departure, the revisitation of younger teenage selves during moments of particular ontological despair, Retrogression returns to an even earlier state..
The Pupa is the gestation sack that facilitates transformation from immature to mature in holometabolous insects. It is the hang-time between larva and imago. For Retrogression, the pupa is also the children’s play room of the Airbnb that the artists are staying in. Working together in intimate, performative mode, the two devolve deeper into a fictionalised fantasy early childhood, into a pre-Homo Sapiens, pre-historic breach.
Retrogression works backward to act out the rat tailed maggot embedded up the arsehole before it becomes the top pollinator of flowers, in order to excavate a new understanding of something they don’t yet know the question to and in doing so, (de)generate an exhibition.
Beth Collar was born in Cambridge, England in 1984. She lives in Berlin. Recent solo projects have been at Dilston Grove, London a commission by Matt’s Gallery and CPG, 2019; Waldo @Mathew Gallery, New York; Primary, Nottingham and Matt’s Gallery, London, 2018; Standpoint, London, 2017 and at Fig 2, ICA, London, 2015. Recent group shows and performances have been at PiK, Cologne; Bärenzwinger, Berlin, 2019; Sans Titre, Paris; Lady Helen, London; Goswell Road @Balice Hertling, Paris; Room E-10 27 @Centre, Berlin; Cell Project Space, London; Horse and Pony, Berlin, 2018; Cafe Oto, London; the Kunstverein München; Kunstraum, London, 2017; Glasgow Women’s Library, Glasgow; Freud Museum, London; KW, Berlin, 2016; Cubitt, London; Rijksakademie, Amsterdam; Raven Row, London; the Serpentine Galleries, London; Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, 2015 and Flat Time House, London, 2014. She was recipient of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award 2016/17.
Eoghan Ryan is an Irish artist currently based in Amsterdam. Selected shows, performances and screenings have taken place at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; South London Gallery; Rowing, London; Spike, Berlin; Serralves Museum, Porto; IFI, Dublin; Outpost, Norwich; Kem, Warsaw; Cubitt, London; Kim? Contemporary, Riga; Plastik Moving Image Festival, Dublin; CAC, Vilnius; Catalyst Arts, Belfast; BDP, Berlin, New Shelter Plan, Copenhagen, EEFF, London and FACT, Liverpool. Eoghan is supported by the Irish Visual Arts Bursary for 2019 and is currently at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten 2019/20.
Supported by VKKF, Culture Ireland
Photo: Līga Spunde