Test Transmission

General Idea, Patricia Dauder, Tobias Kaspar

Curated by Caterina Riva 

Exhibition Dates: 2 September – 8 October 

Opening reception: Thursday 1 September, 6pm

Artspace is pleased to announce Test Transmission; this exhibition launches the programme of Artspace Director Caterina Riva.

Test Transmission brings together three bodies of work produced by two young European artists, Patricia Dauder from Spain and Tobias Kaspar from Switzerland, and by General Idea, the historic artist collective from Canada.

“Moving to a new place calls for a re-evaluation of the way we live, and a reassessment of our daily routine and our usual priorities. The artists in this exhibition, from different viewpoints, seem to tackle an idea of dislocation in relation to a place, requiring the audience’s alertness and insight.” Says Artspace Director Caterina Riva

‘Test Tube’ is a video made for television in 1979 by General Idea’s AA Bronson, Felix Patz and Jorge Zontal. The trio pioneered the use of mass media through borrowing pop culture cliches; staging performances and building fictional worlds which parallel and comment on the art world.

In Patricia Dauder’s work bodies of watercolor swell into abstract forms that could be imagined as something familiar, such as film frames or facets of nature, the work is titled ‘Teahupoo,’ after the dangerous and alluring Tahitian surf break.

Tobias Kaspar’s installation deconstructs language sculpturally and fragments images making the viewer lose track for a while and causing us to question the medium and the message.