Corin Sworn, "The Rag Papers" (production still), 2013. Co-commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery and NAK. Neuer Aachener Kunstverein. Courtesy of the artist, Kendall Koppe, Glasgow and Blanket, Cologne.
Corin Sworn
The Rag Papers
14 April–9 June 2013
NAK. Neuer Aachener Kunstverein
Passstrasse 29
52070 Aachen, Germany
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The NAK. Neuer Aachener Kunstverein presents the first institutional solo exhibition in Germany of the British-Canadian artist Corin Sworn. The Rag Papers represents the artist's most comprehensive exhibition project to date and was co-commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery in London.
In videos, installations and drawings, Sworn investigates themes like the translation of subjective experiences into general history or, conversely, she examines how the process of history is narrated. Her work records the discrepancies that can arise in representing history when perceptions and ideas are translated from one point to another.
The Rag Papers (2013) presents a film as part of an installation in which a synchronised interplay of sound and light augments the film. The film's main story line presents a narrative shift between the perspectives of two characters, a woman and a man, who interact with a series of objects at different moments in a sparsely decorated living space. These seemingly documentary sequences are interspersed with recordings of transitional spaces like sorting depots and flea markets, whose presence Sworn carries over into a second exhibition room featuring large-scale, textile-based wall pieces as another element that augments the filmic space. Added to this is the recurring narrative voice of a third character whose story line ties the film and the light installation together.
Corin Sworn describes the starting point of the work as the moment when she read Susan Sontag's introduction to A Barthes Reader and the borders between Sontag's description of Barthes and the theories Barthes describes began to blur while caught up in the pleasures of reading. Following on this experience, Sworn traces how artifacts are borrowed, tailored to new contexts, and reconfigured afresh in order to tell a new story. She is interested in general ideas of signification on various different levels.
Sworn's works make recurring use of found images or film excerpts. These are appropriated and incorporated into new narrative histories. For The Rag Papers Sworn also uses fragments of found texts. This form of appropriation is reflected in the type of film production, which also features sound composed by Eric La Casa and film clips contributed by Martin Clark and Cara Connelly.
Corin Sworn (b. 1977, London) lives in Glasgow and will represent Scotland at the 2013 Venice Biennial.
Corin Sworn's exhibition is supported by Kunststiftung NRW, the Embassy of Canada in Berlin, the British Council, Creative Scotland, and the City of Aachen.
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