Tim Etchells
As part of Frieze's VIP programme, VITRINE hosts a book launch and artist-in-conversation event to celebrate the publication of Tim Etchells' new 240-page monograph 'Let's Pretend None of this Ever Happened' (Spector Books, 2023). The book investigates Etchells’ longstanding sculptural practice with neon, LED and other media in public and gallery space. Etchells will speak to writer and art critic Orit Gat followed by a book signing. Drinks will be served and the exhibition will be on view throughout.
The book creates a compelling and comprehensive investigation of his projects in public space and galleries, leading with powerful colour images of key works installed in sites all over the world. Alongside its wide-ranging image survey, 'Let’s Pretend None of this Ever Happened' also features an extended conversation with the artist, conducted by the books’ editor July Hillgärtner, director of Kunstverein Braunschweig, as well as an introductory text by curator Ben Borthwick, Head of Programme at KARST, Plymouth, UK.
Surveying the full range and approaches of Etchells’ sculptural work with text, the book (Published by Spector, October 2023) creates dialogue across the artist’s works spanning 16 years, as well as exploring the complex relation between individual works and the different contexts in which they have been installed over the last several decades.
In the exhibition space visitors can view a new body of smaller scale neon works (all 2023). An in-conversation with Orit Gat will follow the book launch where you'll be able to hear the artist talk about the exhibition, his new book and broader practice.
Talk at 6:15pm, Duration 1 hour.
Tim Etchells (b. 1962, Stevenage, UK) lives and works between London and Sheffield. His work has been presented internationally with solo exhibitions at galleries and museums including: TATE Modern, London, UK; Kunstverein Braunschweig, DE; Bloomberg SPACE, London, UK; Plymouth Arts Centre, Plymouth, UK; Jakopič Gallery, Ljubljana, SI; Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow, PL; Gasworks, London, UK; and Künstlerhaus Bremen, Bremen, DE. Solo fair presentations include: Frieze Sculpture (2018 and 2022), London, UK; Performance Exchange, London, UK (2021); Dallas Art Fair, Dallas, US (2016); and Perf4m ARTISSIMA, Turin, Italy (2016). His collaboration with violinist Aisha Orazbayeva ‘Seeping Through (Decouverte)’ was performed at FIAC, Palais De Decouverte, Paris (2016).
Etchells’ work was included in: Folkestone Triennial 2014, Folkestone, UK; Gotenburg International Biennale 2011, SE; Manifesta 7, Rovereto, IT. Further group exhibitions and performance programmes at galleries and museums internationally, include: Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, DE; Kunsthalle Wein, Vienna, AT; Somerset House, London, UK; Ebensperger Rhomberg, Berlin, DE; Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, DE; Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, DE; The Showroom, London, UK; The Grundy, Blackpool, UK; Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK; Compton Verney, Warwickshire, UK; Cubitt Gallery, London, UK; Hayward Gallery, London, UK; Arnolfini, Bristol, UK; Württembergischer, Kunstverein Stuttgart, DE; Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Norwich, UK; MATTATOIO, Rome, IT; Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, DE; The Auxiliary, Middlesborough, UK.
Etchells has concurrently led the performance group Forced Entertainment, based in Sheffield since its inception in 1984. Forced Entertainment are widely considered to be one of the greatest British theatrical exports of the past 30 years, credited with producing some of the most innovative and challenging theatre of the era to great acclaim throughout the world. In 2016, Etchells was awarded the Spalding Gray Award well as the International Ibsen Award for his work with Forced Entertainment.
Current/forthcoming exhibitions include ‘The Weight of Words’ at Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK.
Orit Gat is a writer and art critic living in London. She is a contributing editor at The White Review and at Art Papers and has written about contemporary art, culture, digital culture, and football for magazines including frieze, e-flux journal and e-flux criticism, Artforum, the World Policy Journal and Jacobin, among others. She is currently working her first book, titled 'If Anything Happens', that looks at football (soccer) as a prism through which to explore questions about immigration, nationalism, race, gender, money, love, and the possibility of belonging. She teaches in the writing programme at the Royal College of Art.
