Something Necessary and Useful
Views of the exhibition and the empty exhibition space. © Carlos Bunga.
Whitechapel Gallery +info
In his first major commission in London, Bunga shows a monumental structure out of everyday materials to propose architecture as transitory and corporeal. With a cardboard construction and repurposed domestic furnishings, he creates an evolving installation in dialogue with the historic interiors of the gallery and its public. He encourages us to get lost in the painted surfaces and openings he creates, to wander among items of adapted mobile furniture, and gaze up at large textured hanging canvases.
Bunga draws on his own experience of displacement and loss; but he is also inspired by the American Shaker movement’s insistence on simplicity in their interiors and furniture, exploring what is necessary and useful in art, architecture and design.
By installing in situ and by hand, the artist’s work explores the relationship between bodies, physical space and time. From granting access to visitors during the installation period to collaborating with dancers, he wants to emphasise our interaction with the work, transforming the gallery ‘from a space of circulation to one of freedom’.
POLYCHROMATIC ENVIRONMENT, 2020
Views of Polychromatic Environment (2020). © Carlos Bunga.
WORKS
Ghosts #3, 2019. Acrylic on chromogenic color print. 20 x 30,5 cm. Courtesy: Whitechapel Gallery.
Top left: Ghosts #4, 2019. Acrylic on chromogenic color print. 20 x 30,5 cm. Courtesy: Whitechapel Gallery.
Top right: Ghosts #2, 2019. Acrylic on chromogenic color print. 20 x 30,5 cm. Courtesy: Whitechapel Gallery.
Bottom left: Ghosts #1, 2019. Acrylic on chromogenic color print. 20 x 30,5 cm. Courtesy: Whitechapel Gallery.
Bottom right: Ghosts #5, 2019. Acrylic on chromogenic color print. 20 x 30,5 cm. Courtesy: Whitechapel Gallery.
PROCESS
Courtesy: Whitechapel Gallery.
Bunga talks about his research and inspiration behind the installation for Whitechapel, while we see him work on the documentation process of the exhibition.
Courtesy: Whitechapel Gallery.
A DANCE INTERVENTION
Due to the travel restrictions related to Covid-19, Bunga was unable to return to the Whitechapel Gallery to cut and restructure his piece. He decided to collaborate remotely with dancer Dane Hurst and the Gallery’s technical team. They deconstructed and interacted with the cardboard walls and columns as they were cut and removed, becoming stand-ins for the artist.
This closed-doors performance was recorded on film which Bunga edited closely with the filmmaker Eva Herzog to create two new artworks: From a Space of Circulation to One of Freedom I and II. The first captures Hurst interacting with the green, uncut side of the installation, while the second tracks the dismantling and removal of the white side of the installation.
Courtesy: Whitechapel Gallery.
Though one side of the construction was entirely removed, its foundations were left in place, as a reminder of the mutability of structures and the passage of time. Bunga sees spatial rearrangement as a form of choreography in itself, of which these fragments left behind are testimonials.
Dress Rehearsal for Materiality Will Be Rethought, lead by Joe Moran in the exhibition Carlos Bunga: Something Necessary and Useful, © Whitechapel Gallery. Dancers: Temitope Ajose-Cutting, Sean Murray and Thomas Heyes. Photos: Camilla Greenwell.
Curator: Emily Butler
2020. London, Great Britain.
