The Sequence of Things - Camden Art Centre

For over 40 years, Matt Mullican has been developing a codified language of symbols and diagrams in an attempt to articulate the complexities of existence and the human condition.

Rationalising his all-encompassing theories, Mullican’s visual systems speculate on philosophical intuitions, phenomena, human interaction, and the intricacies of the psyche. His colour-coded geometric designs represent longstanding cornerstones to his work; green stands for material, blue for the everyday world, yellow for ideas, white and black for language and red for the subjective.

Inspired by Camden Art Centre’s history as a public library, The Sequence of Things layered Mullican’s multiple methods of categorisation and ordering. Mathematically dividing the architectural spaces, the galleries were laden with his book works, pin-boards, posters, drawings, flags, objects, photography and videos, all depicting his various maps, charts, diagrams and symbols. Together, the plethora of works demonstrated his attempts to find methodology behind the relationships at play in the world around us and its representation.

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The Artist

Matt Mullican (b.1951, Santa Monica, CA) lives and works in Berlin and New York. Previous exhibitions include Organizing the world, Haus der Kunst, Munuch, 2011 and THAT WORLD / ESE MUNDO, Museo Tamayo, Mexico, 2014. Mullican is represented by Mai 36 Galerie.

Introductory Talk: Matt Mullican & Bonnie Camplin

Matt Mullican and Bonnie Camplin discuss their exhibitions with Mark Pilkington, writer and co-founder of Strange Attractor Press.

Matt Mullican (b.1951, Santa Monica, CA) lives and works in Berlin and New York. Previous exhibitions include Organizing the world, Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2011 and THAT WORLD / ESE MUNDO, Museo Tamayo, Mexico, 2014. Mullican is represented by Mai 36 Galerie.

Bonnie Camplin (b. 1970, London), lives and works in London. Her solo exhibitions include Salty Water/What of Salty Water Portikius, Frankfurt (with Paulina Olowska, 2007) and Lightbox, Tate Britain, London (2008). Camplin was included in Strange Things Permit Themselves the Luxury of Occuring curated by Steve Claydon, Camden Arts Centre (2007). In 2015 she was nominated for the Turner Prize for her 2014 presentation at South London Gallery as part of Anxiety Arts Festival.

Mark Pilkington has run Strange Attractor Press since 2001, publishing books and programming events celebrating unpopular culture. He is the author of ‘Mirage Men’ (2010), which was made into a documentary feature film, and ‘Far Out: 101 Strange Tales from Science’s Outer Edge’ (2007). As a writer he has contributed to magazines, journals and anthologies including Boing Boing, Fortean Times, Frieze, The Guardian and The Wire. When not working with words he makes music with Teleplasmiste, Urthona and The Begotten.

Gallery Tours

1 October 2016 – 7 January 2017

Wednesdays & Saturdays, 12.00 & 4.00pm

Drop in for free, short gallery tours led by our Volunteer Front of House assistants. The tours begin in the Central Space.

 

Educators Social

19 October 2016

Wednesday 19 October, 6.00 – 7.00pm

Join us to celebrate our new exhibitions. The evening will be a chance to meet the Education team, take part in an informal tour and engage with new resources.

Talk: The Extended Mind: Recent Experimental Evidence

9 November 2016

Author and biologist Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, leads a talk on mental and invisible fields, telepathy and the ability of the mind to extend beyond the brain both through attention and intention.

“Our minds may not be confined to the inside of our heads but extend far beyond them through mental fields, just as the invisible fields of mobile phones extend far beyond the material phones themselves. People can influence others at a distance just by looking at them, even if they look from behind.  Animals can be affected by human looks, and vice versa.  Many dogs and cats can detect their owner’s intentions telepathically by from miles away.  Some people can tell who is calling them before they pick up the phone.  Our minds seem to extend beyond our brains both through attention and intention.” – Rupert Sheldrake

Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D. is a biologist and author of more than 80 scientific papers and 11 books, including The Science Delusion. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and a Research Fellow of the Royal Society.  From 2005-2010, he was Director of the Perrott-Warrick Project, funded from Trinity College, Cambridge. He is currently a Fellow of he Institute of Noetic Sciences and of Schumacher College, Dartington, England. He lives in London.

Talk: Mette Kjærgaard Præst

16 November 2016

Independent curator Mette Kjærgaard Præst discusses hysteria and how this term has transformed through history. Looking at its different iterations from the wandering womb in ancient Egypt and Greece until today, the talk will touch upon the aestheticised hysteric women in the Salpêtrière hospital, witches, train crashes, the glowing skin of Princess Diana, the tears of President Obama, and maybe even Gary Barlow.

Mette Kjærgaard Præst is an independent curator based in London. She is curator at PS/Y – an organisation that explores the interface of arts and health sciences, for which she curated the festival Acting Out, Nottingham, 2015. Recent independent projects include: FLUID PHOSPHORESCENCE, Residency Unlimited, New York, 2015; Morphologies, a year long public programme at Kunstraum, London, 2014-2015; Dizziness of freedom, part of Anxiety Festival London, 2014; Flirting, playing, eating, drinking, talking, laughing, Kunstraum, London, 2014; and Party for freedom by Oreet Ashery with Artangel, London, 2013. Mette Kjærgaard Præst holds an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art, London.

Talk: Things: Building and Maintenance

Wednesday 23 November, 7.00 – 8.00pm

Artist Mike Cooter presents a lecture on the association between ideas and things across time. Considering meaning in relationship to design, and history as form of stop-motion animation, this wide-ranging and generously illustrated talk will address such sculptural concerns as co-fabrication (in the studio and elsewhere), infrastructures of context and how objects might collaboratively engineer their place in the world.

Mike Cooter is an artist based in London. He is currently completing his doctorate on MacGuffins at Goldsmiths (University of London). Recent writing has been published by art-agenda and The Exhibitionist, and his work has been included in exhibitions at the Boghossian Foundation – Villa Empain (Brussels), Stroom den Haag (The Hague) and the Swiss Institute (New York) in 2016. More information can be found at mikecooter.org

Exhibition Tour: Gina Buenfeld

8 January 2017

Join Gina Buenfeld, Programme Curator: Exhibitions, for a tour of Matt Mullican’s and Bonnie Camplin’s exhibitions.

Talk: Matt Mullican: That World and My Work

15 January 2017

On the final day of his exhibition The Sequence of Things, Matt Mullican presents one of his renowned lecture demonstrations of the sequences coming out of ‘that world’.  This lecture encompasses the evolution of Mullican’s work and cosmology from 1972 onwards.