Matthew Jones

*Documents & Lies* presents the work of four artists living in London, England. Although not photographic, the works point toward a number of photographic notions about truth and reality. The works on display use conceptual strategies to alter real documents and establish new relationships with them. Their particular use of traces — reproduced, modified or simply invented — allows for the transition from a collective history to another, more personal one. By generating doubt, these artists question what is commonly understood by the term “document."

Douglas Gordon's *30 seconds text* utilizes a scientific text that attempts to determine how long life continues after a body is decapitated. Mathew Jones presents a re-reading of Marcel Proust's *Remembrance of Things Past* through his highlighting of almost every sentence with a pink marker. Cornelia Parker's *Tarnish Drawings* present handkerchiefs carrying the residual markings from tarnished silver objects that belonged to famous people such as Charles Dickens, Henry VIII and James Bowie. Steven Moore manipulates the chemical reactions of paint to render images in a way that mimics the processes of photo emulsion used in photography.

André Martin’s signature is evident in the content of this exhibition — a reflection of his own sensibility as an artist — that includes an interest in literature as material for visual work, in the idea of reality and trace, and in the presence of ambiguity as a way of animating art.

Guest curated by André Martin




Detail of art installation by Cornelia Parker. Individually framed six white handkerchiefsare  mounted on a wall. Uniquely shaped black and brown stains are on these handkerchiefs.

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Twelve art pieces are installed on the gallery wall. They are white handkerchiefs framed in identical-sized squares. There are varying shaped stains on the handkerchiefs.  

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A text-based artwork is printed in white on a black gallery wall. This piece, titled 30 seconds text by Douglas Gordon, explains an experiment conducted in France in 1905.

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A large-sized red cube is built in a gallery space. A black rectangular on the right end of the cube looks like a door through which the visitors may walk inside the cube.

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A small wooden cabinet is installed on a pink gallery wall. One of the containers is filled with pink markers used by the artist to highlight the texts in Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past.

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Three figures are installed on the gallery wall. All of them have dusted white surfaces, on which some drawings are made. Two pieces at the top are circular and the bottom one is rectangular. 

Matthew Jones

Exhibitions