AMSTERDAM.- De Appel arts centre is presenting the first solo exhibition in The Netherlands by the British artist Michael Dean, entitled Qualities of Violence. Dean is exhibiting his latest works in consoles designed in response to the exhibition spaces. During the same period you can see The Common Sense, a new film project by the London and New York-based Melanie Gilligan. This three-part film was created as a result of a unique collaboration among de Appel arts centre, De Hallen Haarlem and Casco, Ofice for Art, Design and Theory.

Melanie Gilligan – The Common Sense
The Common Sense, the new film by Melanie Gilligan (b. 1979), is a science fiction miniseries, based on the future, large-scale use of a new technological application, 'The Patch'. This is an ‘empathy device’, a sort of prothesis that makes it possible to experience the feelings and physical sensations of another person directly. How does this affect the form of interhuman relations? Gilligan fantasizes about a wholly new and different way of relating to one another. She raises questions about the fact that we are already limited by our technological dependency on the smartphones, iPads, etc., which presently define our way of living and communicating.

The Common Sense is being exhibited successively in the three institutions, in the form of a mini-drama series. The first installment is being shown in Casco, with background material. De Hallen Haarlem focuses on a story line centering on the social unrest after ‘The Patch’ breaks down, and in de Appel arts centre the society regains its structure and order. In the film the two story lines ultimately come together in a collective epilogue, which will also be seen in de Appel arts centre.

The Common Sense by Gilligan is a co-production of Casco, de Appel arts centre and De Hallen Haarlem.

Michael Dean – Qualities of Violence
Michael Dean (b. 1977) produces sculptures and photographs, performances and publications – without exception works that call up diverse associations. One critic wrote, “They evoke torture, salt licks, laughter, charcuterie”. Dean primarily uses industrial, democratic materials, and some years ago discovered the plasticity, sturdiness and simplicity of concrete. Initially he used it primarily to produce heavy, physical casts of folded photographs, but more recently he has been making all sorts of seemingly natural forms, which rather often are reminiscent of body parts: a muscle, a tongue or a limb. In his work he tacks between the abstract and the figurative, between a sometimes legible sometimes illegible visual language.

Dean’s works arise from his writing. He gives a physical form to a language which he has himself developed, based on a series of typographic alphabets which he designed himself. The images are therefore cryptic for the viewer – in fact inscrutable and impossible to read – but that is precisely what fascinates Dean: how can you transform spoken or written language into physical objects? How does the viewer interpret (i.e., read) these works, without recognizable letters? Furthermore, How does this experience of the illegible work compare to the artists experience of the world that gave origin to the work?

The consoles that Dean constructed in answer to de Appel are made of cheap MDF sheets, medium-density fiberboard, and like his use of concrete, these basic materials coincide with his interest in what the artist has described as the archetypal qualities of life be found in the post industrial and sociopolitical context of Newcastle Upon Tyne, the city where he was raised. His work therefore has a strong social component: the ‘poverty’ of the material refers to an archetypal experience of living in a highly urbanized environment.