Gonzalez-Torres' work Untitled (Water) (1995), created shortly before his untimely death, will be presented throughout all the exhibition spaces, in entranceways as well as for creating transitional spaces. In dialogue with this will be a key selection of works by Yang from the last decade. The Sea Wall will present the affinities and contrasts in their respective practices, examining their approaches to such ideas as: intimacy and activism, private and public, inside and outside, as well as place and people, relevant for contemporary society in different cultural contexts. Of particular significance here will be the notion of 'community'—fragile, invisible or temporary community—an important subject in the work of these artists.
The exhibition has been titled after the book The Sea Wall by Marguerite Duras, which depicts her life as a child growing up in colonial-era French Indochina during the 1930s, after the death of her father. Her mother is conned into buying a plot of land to live off of, but which is flooded by the sea every year, ruining the harvest. This tale of family struggle projects faint echoes toward the work of the two artists in the exhibition.
The Sea Wall
Felix Gonzalez-Torres / Haegue Yang
Arnolfini
16 Narrow Quay, Bristol
