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Exhibition: Jan 28 – Feb 26, 2012
Artist Talk: 2:00pm, Jan 28
Opening Reception: 8:00pm, Jan 27

221A Artist Run Centre is pleased to present The Space of Observation, a new project by Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens that investigates the linkages between two different types of observational spaces: the photographic space of boxers’ portraits, where the prizefighter crafts a unique persona, and the Cartesian space of economic graphs, where statistical data is plotted to derive mathematical functions.

Thematically oriented around the reversal of the figure / ground relationship, the exhibition features a selection of photographs, diagrammatic drawings, and writings that put seminal and concurrent moments in the history of political economy alongside the last push of industrialization in Britain in the late 19th century which, fuelled by the demand for coal, led to the rapid development of Wales and other mining regions.

With sources that range from British statistician and economist William Stanley Jevons’ first attempts at plotting statistical data onto a Cartesian coordinate system, to archival photographs of Welsh working-class boxing heroes, Ibghy & Lemmens simultaneously highlight and question the codes and conventions that organise these spaces, and in so doing, point to the underlying layers that constitute the context in which these observations are located.

Accompanied by a small publication which further explores the connections between photography, statistics, industrialization, boxing, and the rise of econometrics, The Space of Observation builds on ideas and research Ibghy & Lemmens have been developing since 2008, which aim to actively re-theorize economic action and reclaim economy as a site of human invention and intervention.

Working collaboratively since 2002, Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens’ practice explores questions of economics on a human scale, bridging notions of cultural value and economic theory with the complexities and underlying armatures of economic behaviour. In recent years the two have produced video installations, large-scale public works and publications that propose alternate methods of inquiry and analysis for cultural questions in a late-Capitalist era. Their work has been presented at galleries and institutions including Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond; Labor K1, Berlin; Galleria Alkovi, Helsinki; Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver; VU, Quebec City; Owens Art Gallery, Sackville; European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück and Trafó, House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest. Most recently, they have presented their work at the 10th Sharjah Biennial, UAE. The artists currently live and work in Montreal.

This project is organized by Mandy Ginson as part of 221A’s curatorial residency programme. Ginson lives and works in Vancouver where she produces writing and curatorial projects and works part-time as a Curatorial Administrative Assistant at the Vancouver Art Gallery.