By Any Means is a group exhibition curated by former V.O artist in residence, Gray Wielebinski. Considering an expanded and contextualised exploration of revenge, the show includes newly commissioned pieces by Dala Nasser and Zadie Xa, alongside work by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Umar Rashid (Frohawk Two Feathers), Sunil Gupta and Gray Wielebinski. By Any Means acknowledges that revenge - how it is achieved and narrativised - is deeply rooted and inextricable from social, political and historical contexts, and the power structures that shape them.
Gray Wielebinski (b. 1991 Dallas, TX, USA) received a BA from Pomona College, Claremont CA, USA in 2014 before completing an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK in 2018. He lives and works in London and LA. In Wielebinski’s expansive practice, which incorporates video, performance, collage, installation and sculpture, he explores the intersections of mythology, identity, gender, nationhood and memory. Reconfiguring and transforming iconography and visual codes, their work seeks to navigate society’s frameworks and belief systems. Engaging directly with the contexts in which we live, Wielebinski reveals how narratives reflect and shape our identities. His work opens up the possibilities for a more inclusive storytelling, by reimagining dominant societal mythology. Recent exhibitions include Two Snakes, a solo show at 12.26 Gallery in Dallas, Texas (2020), Our Ashes Make Great Fertilizer at Public Gallery, London, (2020) Repurposed Textiles at Krefelder Kunstverein in Krefeld, DE (2020) and at Frieze London with Hales Gallery, London, where he currently has a solo show.
Download the press release here.
Screening Programme
Gray Wielebinski and curator/writer, Cairo Clarke, have programmed a series of film screenings that will be shown in tandem with the exhibition. These will take place in the fifth floor project space at V.O Curations on 24 and 31 July, and 7 and 14 August.
The conception of a screening programme nods to the legacy of the underground and adult film cultures in the neighbouring London area of Soho, allowing for the thinking through of opacity as a tool to maintain the existence of spaces and communities that are constantly being pushed out and destroyed by institutional, commercial and capital-orientated power structures, whilst also recognising the danger of opacity when used by those structures themselves.
Schedule
Welcome II the Terrordome by Ngozi Onwurah
Running time, 98 min
1pm | 4pm
Terror Nullius by Soda Jerk
Running time, 54 min
1pm | 4pm
Metamorphosis, Episode 3: Emergence
Produced by The Institute of Queer Ecology, commissioned by DIS
Running time, 15 min
Film will run on loop throughout the day
Duilian by Wu Tsang
Running time, 26 min
1pm | 4pm
Screenings must be pre-booked, please visit the booking page for each date for more information.