Damir Očko
May 28 - June 19
Open: Thursday - Saturday , 2pm - 6pm
Private view: Thursday 27 May, 6pm - 9pm
Admission free
Castle & Elephant is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in the UK by Croatian artist Damir Ocko.
Ocko will present two new works entitled The Age of Happiness and The Moon shall never take my Voice. Situated on both levels of the gallery, the two films evidence a shift in Ocko’s subject matter, from filmic landscapes towards a theatrical musing on history and the attributes of sound.
Ocko develops a spectrum of references when making his productions. A strong component of The Age of Happiness is his research into Russian composer Alexander Scriabin’s incomplete work Mysterium. Scarabin’s unrealised durational performance was to be located in the Himalayas, and his intentions were that “there will be no spectators, all will become participants”. One of the proposed effects of this piece was to transform participants into higher human beings. Through the realisation of The Age of Happiness, Ocko highlights this unachievable utopian vision as comparable to the shortcomings of today’s society.
Occupying the upper gallery is Ocko’s most recent film The Moon shall never take my Voice. The film observes a woman performing several acts in sign language, revealing a distinctive, ulterior form of music. The imaginative composition of both sound and noise alters conventional conceptions of hearing as the narrator gradually reveals a story about Gustav Mahler, John Cage and Neil Armstrong. Through this experimental tonal structuring the artist composes and transforms all the silent gestures into a new narrative logic and synthesis of images.
A transcription from The Moon shall never take my Voice will be available in the gallery.
