27 September 2007

I Gave You Life

29 September - 27 October, Preview Friday 28 September, 6-8pm - Nathalie Djurberg, Erica Eyres, Eri Itoi, Kirsty Whiten.

'I Gave You Life' brings together four women artists who explore society's inhibitions or the lack of them, through the series of characters they create. In all works this is manifested through uncompromising studies of awkward characters caught up in dark narratives.

To tell the stories behind her stop-motion animations, Djurberg uses plasticine characters modelled by hand. These child-like figures become the vehicles through which taboos are broken. Born in Sweden in 1978, Djurberg lives and works in Berlin. Past exhibitions include The Berlin Biennial 2006, The Tirana Bienniale, Tirana, Albania, and a solo show at Zach Feuer Gallery, New York in 2006. This year Djurberg also has solo exhibitions in Austria; Project Space - Kunsthalle Wien and Switzerland; Kunsthalle Winterthur.

Erica Eyres is a Canadian artist, living and working in Glasgow. It is the artist herself who plays each character in her twisted melodramas. In 'Baby Marleena', she is the exploitative mother, the mermaid daughter, and the troubled teenager who visits Baby Marleena in her bath tub, to be 'cured'. Eyres' films are magnified scenarios inspired by the worst of American television. Past exhibitions include I Love You But I Hate You, CCA, Glasgow and Rokeby Gallery, London, both 2006. Eyres has solo exhibitions at Fette's Gallery, Los Angeles and Kunsthaus Erfurt, Erfurt during 2007.

'I Gave You Life' also features the contrasting drawings of two Edinburgh-based artists, Kirsty Whiten and Eri Itoi. Whilst Whiten's fetishistic studies are of people with an unsettling lack of inhibition who stare challengingly out of the page, Itoi's insular girls are neurotically self-sufficient. Their exquisite detailed costumes are like little worlds, sustaining landscapes and all manner of flora and fauna.

Whiten is represented by Stolenspace, London where she had a solo exhibition earlier in 2007. Recent exhibitions include The Subterranean Garden curated by Switch London, The Crypt, Euston Parish Church, London and a solo exhibition at The Arches, Glasgow entitled Votive Icons.

Itoi, originally from Japan, is represented by David Risley Gallery, London. Since graduating in 2006 Itoi has exhibited in several group exhibitions in London and has a solo exhibition at Analogue in Edinburgh this year.

Cooper Gallery Exhibitions Department, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee, DD1 4HT Tel: 01382 385330 Fax: 01382 385538 E: exhibitions@dundee.ac.uk W: www.exhibitions.dundee.ac.uk

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