STUART BRISLEY, State of Denmark, installation view, Modern Art Oxford, 2014
STUART BRISLEY, State of Denmark, installation view, Modern Art Oxford, 2014
STUART BRISLEY, State of Denmark and Hille Poly Wheel, installation view, Modern Art Oxford, 2014
STUART BRISLEY, State of Denmark and Before The Mast, installation view, Modern Art Oxford, 2014
STUART BRISLEY, State of Denmark, installation view, Modern Art Oxford
STUART BRISLEY, State of Denmark, Before The Mast, installation view, Modern Art Oxford, 2014
STUART BRISLEY, State of Denmark, The Missing Text paintings, Chair and Royal Ordure, installation view, Modern Art Oxford, 2014
STUART BRISLEY, State of Denmark, The Missing Text paintings, installation view, Modern Art Oxford, 2014
STUART BRISLEY, State of Denmark, Peterlee Project, installation view, Modern Art Oxford, 2014
STUART BRISLEY, State of Denmark, Film programme, installation view, Modern Art Oxford, 2014

 

Stuart Brisley, State Of Denmark, Modern Art Oxford

Curated by David Thorp with the Museum of Ordure

19 September – 16 November 2014

Opening reception: 19 September 2014

 

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"  Hamlet (1.4), Marcellus to Horatio, William Shakespeare

As the end of the twentieth century drew near the author and political commentator Richard Gott writing about Stuart Brisley considered the state of British institutions, censuring them for their secrecy, decadence and irrelevance. Today those same institutions whose demise he contemplated are still in place, some bloodied but all unbowed. Gott discussed how as an artist Brisley positioned himself in relation to these institutions challenging their process of decline. As part of this enterprise Stuart Brisley established a self institution, Museum of Ordure, which is organized as a collective. It exists as a theoretical, almost surreal entity founded upon scatological symbolism in which the Curator and Acting Director, Rosse Y. Sirb slides in and out of different aspects of museology which, as the Museum’s Mission Statement says, examine 1. The cultural value of ordure, shit, rubbish. 2. The waste of human resources through various ownership, production, and management regimes.The Museum’s narrative in a book written by Brisley considers the acts of curating and collecting, discussing the intrinsically worthless nature of objects in the collection and whether or not the process of bringing them together in a museum collection elevates them collectively to the status of art.

Stuart Brisley has been described as a ‘dirty’ artist; it is dirt, dust and refuse, effluence and decay that he makes use of in his actions. His recurring use of particular objects, the shit-covered chair, the weighty regal crown - us down here, them up there - offers no hope of redemption and makes no judgment; all is conjecture, everything remains open."

From the accompanying curatorial text by David Thorp, 2014 

 

 

http://www.modernartoxford.org.uk/

the guardian art and design

frieze review

art monthly review

artlyst review

oxford mail review

thisistomorrow review

Listen to Stuart Brisley talking about his show

 

A new publication Stuart Brisley The Peterlee Project 1976-77 accompanies this exhibition.

 

To purchase please contact us or purchase from MAO bookshop.

PERSPECTIVES ON STUART BRISLEY 

Thursday 23 October, 7pm

 

A series of short talks offering different viewpoints on Stuart Brisley's work.  Speakers include: 

Dr Sanja Perovic from Kings College London, on the political and social importance of the adoption of the revolutionary calendar, 

Stephen Shaw from Local Works, on how political, grass roots mobilization and campaigning develops and has made society what it is today

Dr Edward Harcourt, University of Oxford on the philosophy of authenticity in relation to Stuart Brisley's work.

Free, Booking essential


Please go to the text section for Dr Edward Harcourt's text on Stuart Brisley's work.