Auto Italia, London, 18 June 2011 — 31 July 2011
Rachal Bradley and Jess Wiesner
Ever Changing Moods, 2011, Rachal Bradley and Jess Wiesner. Courtesy of the artists.

“Let’s say for argument’s sake we have worked in sculpture and performance to produce positions that problematise our own vocabulary and relationships with matter. It might be emotional, material or intellectual. It reflects the high anxiety of our epoch.” – Jess Wiesner and Rachal Bradley

Ever-Changing Moods is a project by Rachal Bradley and Jess Wiesner, commissioned by Auto Italia. Brought together by Auto Italia, Bradley and Wiesner present sculpture and performance made in and out of collaboration and in consultation with a wide variety of contributing artists.

Using Auto Italia’s main exhibition space, the artists use real objects (bottles, cacti, house-wife pillows, boxing bags) together with treated elements that are scored, etched or welded to bring about a staged crisis. These sculptural pieces installed specifically on the horizontal plane of the exhibition space seek to elicit changing perspectives and moods. Performances occur throughout the exhibition acting as additional material, like temporary sculptures. These include a mime performance with costumes specifically designed by Melissa Gordan and Fabienne Gassman and a presentation on colour by Lucy Stein and Alex Neilson. Auto Italia’s current artist in residence, Andrew Kerton, will be making new work during the exhibition in dialogue with the artists.

The opening night of the exhibition will feature a large-scale performance entitled ‘Working Tax Credits; Full time, Full ON’. This will be re-staged again on the 29th July. A series of panel discussions organised in tandem with the exhibition draw on specialists from a variety of fields including law, neuroscience, critical theory, psychoanalysis and architecture. These panel discussions will explore topics ranging from the notion of truth in science, art and law, to the actual meaning of a work life balance and will include a discussion of post-analytical thinking.

All the elements of this collaborative work will feed into the idea of an ever-changing mood generated by a group of people working together and interacting through performance and sculpture. The artists involved engage with a concern that through a mood, ideas of action, agency, active rest and passive resistance can be rescued.