JOHN WOOD AND PAUL HARRISON: NO BEGINNING - NO MIDDLE - NO END

The two British artists John Wood (b. 1969) and Paul Harrison (b. 1966) have been working together since 1993. Their interaction – whether supportive or antagonistic – is both a prerequisite for and the subject of their artistic practice. They are known for their film works, but also engage with photography and drawing. Mostly, these are short video works in which they precisely combine seriousness and absurdity. Their minimalist, sculptural, installation-based and choreographed productions oscillate between collapse, calculation and chance. Yet they always aim at the systematic order of things. Small everyday objects or gestures take on new functions and connotations in the laboratory-like environment of their videos, thereby presenting the viewer with something unforeseen and unexpected.

The artists develop their ideas through drawings, which may later take the form of videos, prints, photographs or sculptures, yet retain a sketchy and graphic quality. Their cinematic explorations of space and time usually take place in spaces created specifically for this purpose and follow a pseudo-scientific method: the artists determine the setting, the starting point, and the conditions and parameters of the events. However, once the ‘ball’ starts rolling, chance often becomes the determining factor. With the exhibition John Wood and Paul Harrison: No Beginning – No Middle – No End, the Kunstmuseum Thun focuses on the duo’s more recent works and, in this context, also presents their latest text-based works.

The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with the Ikon Gallery Birmingham and the Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart and is their first institutional solo exhibition in Switzerland.

hiffers and Thomas Sprenger, Albert Schnyder, Emil Zbinden, Arthur Zeller.