Kendell Geers - Where Angels Fear to Tread

Kendell Geers presents a series of new installations at the Delfina Project Space, opening on Tuesday 19 June. In recent years Kendell Geers has gained international recognition for his provocative, socio-political investigation of fundamental human concerns – mortality, irrationality, disorder, distress, freedom, oppression.

Within the entrance area of the Project Space, Kendell Geers has installed a white corridor 10 metres in length, 3 metres high, 1.5 metres wide, with hospital swing doors at either end. Along each wall hang rows of bright orange body bags, empty of their anticipated cargo. These remnants of death and disposal suggest mass violence and the sanitised, clinical manner in which entire histories are summarily and hastily discarded. The only viable entrance and exit for the main exhibition space, the corridor provides an uncomfortable introduction to a series of projected text works which are likewise disconcerting in quality.

'What Does D.I.A.N.A. Stand For' (2000) consists of slides projected from a rapidly revolving slide carousel. Each slide presents a joke taken directly from the internet, referring in the most tasteless and callous terms to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. 'Silent Night' (2000), a projection of more than 1000 abusive terms in rapid succession, again highlights what is present in everyday existence. As the visitor approaches, the projection pauses pointedly on a single obscenity. Kendell Geers holds a mirror to humanity and presents the evidence with devastating neutrality.

Kendell Geers was born in South Africa in May 1968 and lives and works in London. Recent and forthcoming exhibitions include ‘Memento Mori’, Middelburg, Belgium (’97); ‘98.3’, ArtPace, San Antonio (’98); ‘States of Emergency’, Secession, Vienna (’99); Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (’99); Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris (’00); Berlin Biennale (’01); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (’02) Pressetext

Kendell Geers - Where Angels Fear to Tread