Dan Rees: Space Invaders 2
Tanya Leighton, Kurfürstenstraße 156, 10785 Berlin
17 September-26 October 2013
From the Press Release
Dan Rees’ recent exhibition, Space Invaders 2, considers notions of trace through the photographing of a mural long ago dedicated to solidarity across continents, alongside the modest documentation of himself in his grandmother’s home - all of which are hints to his practice on a larger scale.
Space Invader (Monimbo Platz) continues Rees’ exploration of the solidarity between Europeans’particularly the Welsh and East Germans’and Nicaraguans. All of the photos in the series were taken in Lichtenberg, a former East German neighborhood, which notably has a building-sized mural by Nicaraguan artist Manuel García Moia. The gridded arrangement of the photos into a hallmark pattern derived from a graffiti artist allows Rees to riff on the ideas of public art and its presence - or in the case of the Moia mural, its absence, as the piece has been temporarily taken down for restoration.
Rees’ recent video work, Laverbread, 2012 can be read as an index to his practice. The video touches on his Welsh history, prominently featuring his 95 year old grandmother in her home in Wales. Scenes from the video casually feature bits of Welsh culture that Rees has used as the inspiration for certain series of work. For example, the camera slowly pans over the Artex ceiling in Rees’ grandmother’s home. In one scene, Rees can be seen spreading Laverbread on toast, a Welsh snack made of seaweed paste. Rees’ recent show, “Kelp” at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff was entirely centered around the concept of rebranding Laverbread into a trendy health food.
