Emily Wardill is the first laureate of the Follow Fluxus – After Fluxus grant

The first ever Follow Fluxus – After Fluxus grant for young contemporary art called by the Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden and the state capital of Wiesbaden and doted with 10.000 € goes to British video and performance artist Emily Wardill (*1977 Rugby, UK) .

Following sources of philosophy, science and culture, Emily Wardill recomposes text and image material from the history of ideas--such as the motives of medieval church windows or theoretical treatises from Ruskin to Rancière--and develops a many layered and intense meshwork of autonomous statements and concepts. Her work is concerned with strategies of communication and the implicit connection between the structure of a language and the media conversion of the pre-existent text and image material.

In Wiesbaden, Emily Wardill presented herself with a selection of her 16mm videos. With an almost magical pull, the artist enthrals the spectator in details and recesses of complex interrelations, combining music and speech with a syntax of absence in sound and vision.

Wardill’s technique follows the principles of a collage with playful but strict rules of composition. In her films she quotes finds of the real world and underlays and expands them with speech specific elements. The films’ music, composed by Wardill herself, plays symmetrically mirrored after a strict score reminiscent of Schönberg’s twelve-tone technique.

Based on one single metaphor, one carefully chosen motif, Wardill plays with the sensuous possibilities of filmic narrative. With the surging social and psychological implications, she pulls the spectator into an intense tableau vivant. The expectation of a complex overall meaning is fed by hidden leads and encoded clues for possible interpretations: The visitor’s perception is wooed along a labyrinthine path of intellectual seduction.

This is where the jury sees the point of contact in the further development of George Macuinas’ ideas. Primal for the jury’s decision was not an artist’s self-image as an heir of historical Fluxus but rather a body of work which transpires the Fluxus spirit, free of any categorical boundaries.

The fresh and insistent pictorial language of Emily Wardill and her ambition to tap the full potential of the medium film convinced the jury to elect Emily Wardill as the first ever Follow Fluxus – After Fluxus laureate of the NKV and the state capital of Wiesbaden.



The jury 2008 consisted of

/ Prof. Thomas Bayrle, artist and Professor at the Staedelschule Frankfurt
/ Michael Berger, Collection Berger, Wiesbaden
/ René Block, Curator of the Fluxus Trilogy Wiesbaden 1982 - 1992 - 2002
/ Rita Thies, Head of Cultural Department of the city of Wiesbaden
/ Elke Gruhn, Director and Curator of NKV
and Dr. Ursula Schaumburg-Terner, Board Member of NKV

About Follow Fluxus – After Fluxus /

Follow Fluxus – After Fluxus supports young international artists whose work suggests ideas inherent to the Fluxus art movement in order to keep the art current alive. The establishment of the grant was inspired by the “Fluxus Festival of Very New Music” which took place in Wiesbaden in 1962. This Fluxus event provided the first real broad impact for the new art movement and started off what is now seen as the first international movement operating in a global network.

The endowment of 10,000 Euro is provided annually for a residency in Wiesbaden from June through August. Living quarters and studio space is provided by NKV during this time. The work stipend concludes with an exhibition of the artist’s created work in the following year between September and May and includes a publication. The grant holder should reside predominantly in Wiesbaden for the duration of the grant period.

For your convenience we have provided further information on the grant Follow Fluxus – After Fluxus as well as press images for download at
www.kunstverein-wiesbaden.de/presse/followfluxus2008.zip.

Should you require any more material or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us anytime via email at presse@kunstverein-wiesbaden.de or mobile on 0049 163 867 6242 (Klara Jung).
We would be happy to arrange an interview with Elke Gruhn for you.

Best wishes from the Kunstverein

Katharina Klara Jung
/ press and pr

ll nassausicher kunstverein wiesbaden
presse & pr
wilhelmstrasse 15
d - 65185 wiesbaden

presse@kunstverein-wiesbaden.de
www.kunstverein-wiesbaden.de

The Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden

In the heart of the city in a historical villa directly at the Wilhelm Avenue, the Nassauischer Kunstverein has been Wiesbaden's address for contemporary art since 1847.

In changing exhibitions, a team of dedicated art historians and curators approximate the tendencies of contemporary art to the visitors. We show thematic group and single exhibitions of international artists as well as regional positions.

We invite guest curators to present here in Wiesbaden an insight into their perception of what is happening in the art world. The exhibitions mean to kaleidoscopically comment on contemporary art.

We have declared it our special goal to provide a platform for young art. In cooperation with the artists, the curators introduce tensing, controversial and progressive tendencies in changing exhibitions.

With our exhibitions, art trips and specific communication we want to show our visitors the social relevance of contemporary art.

This release was published on openPR.