ISSUES

Issues presents In Broad Daylight, a suite of eight new painting works and the first solo exhibition by Emanuel Röhss with the gallery.

Röhss’ curiosity with interpretations of time manifested in human culture in relation to how perpetual signs of time manifest in nature, has recently prompted the artist to explore the dialectic of time throughout several projects realized in different mediums.

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The enquiry stirred up Röhss’ past experiences of summer solstices as he remembers them in Sweden. During the undiscriminating light intensity of the Scandinavian solar pinnacle, the difference in brightness between the hours of the day varies less than ever. It provides a subtle indication of time, as if the day has slowed down and is distributed through a more homogenous frequency than usual.

The sun is the celestial phenomena that has been utilized most frequently in our attempts to observe the passing of time. Historians and mathematicians alike much prefer sundials to mechanic or electronic clocks, as they are our most unambiguous devices for defining time through the suns’ movement in a specific geographical location. Mid-April to mid-June, the sun appears “fast”, i.e. it will reach solar noon several minutes earlier than your watch will indicate 12:00:00.

With this new series Röhss re-engages in a material enquiry he embarked on in 2012: an examination of how paint behaves on a metal surfaces when diluted to the point off disintegration. Thin layers of CERULEAN BLUE CHROMIUM is sprayed onto DILITE® panels to dry flat. By working the medium in this fashion the artist explores how a suggestion of a space opens up on the effectively smooth planes.

The painting method employed in the works on display was utilized as a means of observing the fluctuations in light in the local sub strato-sphere during summer solstice as Röhss recalls it. The artist considered the hours of June 21 2018, each suggesting a specific tonality which formed the parameter for the eight works.

The Haystacks was Monet’s first rigorous project to explore how the facet of one single subject differs according to fluctuations in light and atmosphere at different times of day. Every morning before the crack of dawn the painter brought some thirty-odd ongoing paintings to the same field in Giverny, and worked on whichever of them most resembled the light conditions of the given moment.

“For me a landscape hardly exists at all as a landscape, because its appearance is constantly changing; but it lives by virtue of its surroundings, the air and the light which vary continually.”

— Claude Monet

It is more meaningful to consider the panels featured in this exhibition as approximations, or impressions, of light phenomena registered within Röhss’ sensory-system, than as an index of instrumental readings. Despite the artists’ engagement in a stern rationale for making of the work, this exorcise in painting become less of an objective undertaking and more a tool for a sensual navigation within a field of interest.

EMANUEL RÖHSS

b. 1985 Gothenburg, Sweden. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

Emanuel studied at Royal College of Art in London, where he received an MA in Painting. In his practice, Emanuel explores the relationship between architectures from historical and contemporary civilisations as well as the creation of illusory environments in popular culture. The artist is interested in manmade environments between which an imperative pathos, gesture or persona can be traced and identified as reappearing throughout different contexts. In his long term project with the Ennis House he examined how a building comes to life as an animate being in its own right through the production of fiction in cinema, television and games. Predominantly based in sculpture, installation and painting, each body of work is made with careful consideration to the properties of the space it occupies.

Emanuel has been subject of solo exhibitions at Thomas Duncan Gallery in Los Angeles, Coma Gallery in Sidney, SALTS in Basel, T293 in Rome, Index in Stockholm and Project Native Informant in London as well as recognized international awards. He was also included in group exhibitions at Sadie Coles HQ in London, Postcodes in São Paulo, Museo Capadimonte in Napels and South London Gallery in London to name but a few.

Issues has produced exhibitions since 2014 in specific places, places that perhaps exist more in the visitor’s mind than in real life. In 2015, Issues showed the American artist Ryan Trecartin’s video artwork CENTER JENNY on 196 screens at the home electronics store Media Markt in Stockholm, during and after opening hours. Offering an alternative to the non-space of the white cube, Issues will continue to work with artists to realise projects in unconventional places for exhibitions or in places that expand the contemporary art landscape.