KALEIDOSCOPE

In 2016, Modern Art Oxford marked its 50th anniversary as an internationally acclaimed powerhouse of contemporary visual culture. We celebrated by creating a new kind of exhibition. Called KALEIDOSCOPE, this twelve-month exhibition evolved through a series of twists bringing different artistic ideas into focus through five thematic phases. Visitors could see behind the scenes as art works were removed and installed - throughout the year - showing the life of the gallery at work with artists. KALEIDOSCOPE explored some key ideas in contemporary art by bringing back iconic artworks from the gallery's history and presenting these alongside contemporary artists, many of whom were commissioned to make brand new works for this project. This exhibit tells the story of the project as it evolved over the year. 

KALEIDOSCOPE began with 'The Indivisible Present' - an exhibition of work of artists who explore the concept and experience of time. Framed by John Latham’s radical proposal in the 1960s that art is an event in time and space, the exhibition explored how our perceptions can be affected by temporality.  It highlighted some of the ways in which our experiences of time have changed over the past fifty years - and that everyday life in the twenty-first century has greatly accelerated.  The Indivisible Present included work by Douglas Gordon, Pierre Huyghe, John Latham, Yoko Ono, Elizabeth Price, Dog Kennel Hill Project and Viola Yeşiltaç.

For John Latham, the destruction of matter and material was a productive act and a means of exploring and critiquing received ideas. Latham burned books and embedded them into the surface of his works, transforming them from containers of knowledge into sculptural objects.

Inspired by Gustav Metzger’s observation that ‘every step in nature is a moment of grace’, the second phase of KALEIDOSCOPE explored the ways in which artists use materials to comment on consumption in contemporary life.  A Moment of Grace charted the many ways that artists use specific material strategies to critique globalised capitalism and its associated systems of value.

A Moment of Grace included Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Kevin Beasley, John Latham, Jac Leirner, David Maljkovic, Gustav Metzger, Gareth Nyandoro, Yoko Ono, Open Music Archive and Guan Xiao.

The artist Sol LeWitt said that ‘conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists.  They leap to conclusion which logic cannot reach’. The third twist of KALEIDOSCOPE took LeWitt’s thought as inspiration to explore the different ways art has been used as a form of knowledge and experience production.  The artists in Mystics and Rationalists employ methods of production ranging from the emotional, intuitive and psychological to approaches that are purely procedural, systematic and rational.  Mystics and Rationalists included Karla Black, Daniel Buren, Dorothy Cross, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Dan Graham, Sol LeWitt, Yoko Ono and Amy Sillman. 

"My footsteps make the mark.  My legs carry me across the country.  It’s like a way of measuring the world.  I love that connection to my own body.  It’s me to the world." This quote by artist Richard Long formed the inspiration for the next phase of KALEIDOSCOPE. Recognising a growing separation from nature in an increasingly digitally-mediated society, 'It's Me to the World'  looked at the ways in which artists from different generations have used forms from nature and the body to explore ideas of perception and cognition, intimacy and endurance.

Its Me to the World included work by Marina Abramović, Mohammed Qasim Ashfaq, Helen Chadwick, Dorothy Cross, Richard Long, Agnes Martin, Otobong Nkanga, Yoko Ono and Hannah Rickards.

The final twist of KALEIDOSCOPE took its title from a fictional interview in 1967 between the Belgian artists Marcel Broodthaers and Rene Magritte, in which Broodthaers described his desire to reinstate ‘the vanished reality’ surrounding Magritte’s surrealist paintings.  This exhibition presented works by artists who have explored how the meaning of art is shaped by political, economic and social conditions in which it is produced and presented.

The Vanished Reality included work by Marcel Broodthaers, Hans Haacke, Iman Issa, Darcy Lange, Louise Lawler, Maria Loboda, Kerry James Marshall, Katja Novitskova, Yoko Ono and Hardeep Pandhal.

The KALEIDOSCOPE year attracted over 300,000 visitors to the galleries and online, and included performances, talks, film screenings and workshops all inspired by the ideas explored in the exhibitions. It involved the work of over 50 artists and gave audiences a rare glimpse behind the scenes as the exhibitions took shape.