Richard Bevan

Cell Project Space,

London 5th - 7th November 2011

         Cell Project Space is proud to present an exhibition of new work by London based artist Richard Bevan as the initial instalment of CYcLE CLUB, a series of exhibitions, screenings, talks and performances that aim to compliment the galleries CYcLORAMA programme of solo shows. 
          As with CYcLORAMA, CYcLE CLUB is a platform for current artists whose practice exhibit a tangible resonance of the approaches to film and video work that were developed and utilised by those associated with the Expanded Cinema movement of the 60?s and 70?s such as filmAktion and others allied with the London Film Co-Op. The programme will span artists who use moving image as elements within performance and installation work, those who explore the formalistic qualities that come out of both the material nature of film and video and the various phases of its production process and those who challenge and invert traditional approaches to narrative. 

         During the years intervening these two generations not only has visual Art discourse developed but technological advancements have revolutionised both the recording equipment artists can call upon as well as the available modes of distribution and display. To reflect this the programme will bring together practices that continue to investigate the potential and relevance of the materials used by the earlier Expanded Cinema artists as well as those who work with contemporary moving image mediums, deconstructing them in a way that mirrors what the previous generation once did with cellular film. Over the coming months the programme will unpack what connects these two very different eras of artist film and video work.
          CYcLE CLUB will commence with an artist whose practice is grounded in the medium that was once treasured by the early Expanded Cinema artists but is now becoming increasingly obsolete, 16 mm film. However, instead of nostalgia, the film work of Richard Bevan contains an awareness of the medium and offers the viewer the chance to see its continued vitality. 
         His films are inherently site-specific and often record ephemeral interventions or constructions within the venue in which the work is subsequently projected. These interventions and constructions manipulate and emphasize the light that is such an integral agent in the filming process. The finished film, which lasts only a few minutes due to the mediums practical limitations, is then looped in order to give the details of his scene an opportunity to emerge gently, playing with the audiences? sense of the familiar by screening a reinterpretation of the space they are in.
        For the exhibition the artist has taken the opportunity to shoot his work during the month of August while Cell Project Space is closed and its gallery is cleared, repainted and repaired in anticipation for the next seasons of exhibitions. The empty white walled room is now as neutral as possible with the light that pours in through the large skylights becoming one of its most prominent features.

Curated: Neil Jefferies

Artist: Richard Bevan