Launch Pad: Some Misunderstanding [on Mondegreens and Pareidolias]

Castlefield Gallery is pleased to present Some Misunderstanding [on Mondegreens and Pareidolias] curated by CG Associate Sevie Tsampalla. Some Misunderstanding is a Castlefield Gallery Launch Pad exhibition and was selected through open submission by Director of the Northern Art Prize and Co-Director of Project Space Leeds Pippa Hale and former Castlefield Gallery Deputy Director Clarissa Corfe, The exhibition will feature work by Cory Arcangel, Anton Bruhin, Jenny Core, Dina Danish, Denicolai & Provoost, Maya Erdelyi, Dave Evans and Ben Gwilliam.

Mondegreens are mishearings of words or phrases, which in turn acquire new meanings. Pareidolias are randomly occurring shapes, forms or sounds experienced as significant by individuals or groups. Drawing on examples such as misheard song lyrics or sightings of religious figures in banal objects, this exhibition explores how misunderstandings can lead to everything from amusing mistakes to amplified experiences of the world.

Some Misunderstanding brings together eight artists from across Europe, the U.S. and the North West of England. Dina Danish performs her own mondegreen as she strains to lip-sync to Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’ under water. Anton Bruhin organises the Swiss-German dialect in order of near-homophones, problematising the task of differentiation for the listener. Ben Gwilliam’s installation wäil, a play on the words veil and wail, shimmers and whispers with unheard sound when disturbed by the viewer. Cory Arcangel compresses Iron Maiden’s song ‘The Number of the Beast’ 666 times, referring to its history as a source of subliminal messages, and ‘corrects’ Jimi Hendrix’s performance of the Star Spangled Banner using Apple’s auto-tune software. Inspired by sci-fi film sets, Dave Evans’ Paper Mountains indulge our ability to suspend disbelief. Jenny Core’s drawings encourage our inclination to recognise familiar patterns in abstract images. Maya Erdelyi constructs meaning by reorganising her own random thoughts, family histories and dreams, whilst Denicolai & Provoost expose the blurred lines between subjective experience and objective reality, between seeing and believing.

#SomeMisunderstanding

Launch Pads are short exhibitions or performances that punctuate Castlefield Gallery’s main exhibition programme providing artists and curators with the opportunity to use the gallery as a test bed for the production, display and consumption of contemporary art. Launch Pads feature emerging talent selected from CG Associate members’ submissions (three times a year) and from the MA and BA art courses at Manchester School of Art (once a year). For more information about CG Associates and Launch Pad visit castlefieldgallery.co.uk/associates/

Sevie Tsampalla (b. 1977, Kos) is an independent curator based in Manchester. She studied Art History at the University of Athens and Cultural Studies at the KULeuven. She has contributed with texts to exhibition catalogues and curated ‘sitePARAsite’ (2008) and ‘Extra Muros’ (2008), two group exhibitions that included site-responsive works and performances by emerging Belgian artists. As a founding member of the arts collectives ‘Reconstruction Community’ in Athens and ‘Audiovisual Artists Anonymous’ in Brussels, she initiated projects in the public realm. For ‘Green Days’, a collaborative project between four European not-for-profit organisations, looking at art, nature and the urban environment, she curated ‘LINK’ (2011), a temporary installation that aimed to redefine the functions of a public square in Brussels. Alongside an interest in art in the public realm, collaborative processes and site-responsive projects, her recent curatorial practice aims to investigate ways of subverting socio-cultural norms and explore crossovers between popular culture and visual art.

Cory Arcangel (b. 1978, New York) is a Brooklyn based artist and musician who makes work in drawing, video and performance. He often appropriates material from YouTube, Photoshop and video games in order to explore the relationship between contemporary culture and technology.

Anton Bruhin (b. 1949, Lachen) is an artist and composer from Zurich, Switzerland. A pioneer of experimental music, he is also known as a skilled Jew’s harp player. Bruhin has released more than 15 albums, including: ‘Deux Pipes’(2010, Alga Margen), ‘11 Heldengesänge & 3 Gedichte’ (2002, Urs Engeler) and ‘Rotomotor’ (2001, Alga Marghen).

Jenny Core (b. 1986, Bolton) studied Fine Art at The University of Huddersfield. She now lives and works in Manchester and exhibits her drawing work internationally. Using bubble solution, ink and graphite powder on paper, Core employs a mixture of chance elements and calculated intervention, often adding figurative elements to abstract ones.

Dina Danish (b. 1981, Paris) is a French/Egyptian artist who lives and works in Amsterdam. She studied at the American University in Cairo and received a MFA at California College of the Arts, San Francisco, followed by a two- year artist residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Danish’s videos and installations combine conceptual art’s preoccupation with language and structure with an interest in humor, misunderstanding, mistranslation and superstition.

Simona Denicolai (b. 1972, Milan) and Ivo Provoost (b. 1974, Diksmuide) are Denicolai & Provoost, an Italian-Belgian artist duo living and working in Brussels. With their work Denicolai & Provoost aim to systematically sabotage the safety mechanisms of the art industry. Their work resists categorisation, spanning across performance, installation and animation. Often shown in public spaces, their work deals with the instabilities and uncertainties of social situations.

Maya Erdelyi (b. 1979, New York) is an animator and director from New York. She received a MFA in experimental animation from CalArts, before studying fine art at The Cooper Union and Hunter College in New York. Inspired by imaginary worlds, memories and profound experiences, Erdelyi explores the cycles of life and the realms of consciousness. Her animations utilise a hybrid approach to drawn and computer animation that incorporates intricate hand-made collages, puppetry and cut-paper stop-motion.

Dave Evans (b. 1975, Liverpool) lives and works in Liverpool and makes work with sculpture, sound and printmaking. He studied sculpture at the University of Wolverhampton and printmaking at The Royal College of Art and is currently a director at The Royal Standard, an artist-led space in Liverpool. His ‘Paper Mountains’ are inspired by the economy of means employed by sci-fi B-movie set designers, who create the backdrops and set pieces for complex narratives with limited budgets. His work alludes to how our perception of objects is strongly influenced by their presence within a specific context.

Ben Gwilliam (b. 1980, Stockport) has studied Contemporary Art at the University of Salford and is currently undertaking PhD research in Art and Music Practice at Oxford Brookes University. His work includes sound, film, installation and performance. Exploring abstract or descriptive situations, materials and relationships in time and space, his practice uses the mechanics of media to reflect upon the contexts of reception.

Launch Pad: Some Misunderstanding [on Mondegreens and Pareidolias] is supported by the Flemish Authorities.

The preview of Launch Pad: Some Misunderstanding is supported by Soup Kitchen

Preview: Thursday 8 August, 6-8pm – All welcome