The University of Hertfordshire Galleries are delighted to present a solo exhibition by British artist George Eksts. Eksts uses video, sound photography, drawing and sculpture to explore ideas of progress, completion, time and the temporary.
Development Heaven pivots on a large-scale wall drawing created by the artist using tape, which will be gradually de-installed over the seven weeks of the exhibition to leave a potent expanse of bare wall. In the artist's own words 'it is about measuring a space in terms of time'. This unidentifiable subject delineated in black tape references the VHS tape used in its predecessor Auto Reverse (2013).
This emphasis on form and structure over content defines much of Eksts' work. Tools are presented as ends instead of means, valued for their inherent potential rather than any definite product. Obsolete media are re-purposed as materials for drawing and sculpture. Eksts removes the obvious function of things we take for granted and flips them around to offer instead a sense of infinite, open-ended possibilities.
Eksts is interested in the process of editing, often taking found footage and dramatically transforming its meaning and context by clever, playful edits. In his ongoing series of 'Endless Videos', each film shows an action that never ends: Falsework (2013) shows a group of scaffolders choreographed in short, repetitive actions that fail to progress their task. Another film sees an inverted branch trapped in power-lines, perpetually teased by the wind. In Writer's Writer (2013), two seemingly blank signs quiver in endless partnership, serving no useful purpose for way-finding.
In the days leading up to the opening of Development Heaven, Eksts will take advantage of the expansive Art & Design Gallery space to lay out and play with his archive - creating fresh combinations and resolutions for individual pieces. The resulting presentation will be unique and specific to this particular space and moment in time.
George Eksts is represented by Tintype, London.