A Gradual Stiffening (Rea) – Eleanor Wright
We are delighted to share news of Eleanor Wright (BSA Arts Bursary holder 2015-16) who sent us this example of current work of hers drawing on the time she spent at the BSA in Athens.
“Single channel video with accompanying composition by Christian Jendreiko first shown as part of Eleanor Wright’s exhibition ‘Pre-public Scenery’ at Petra Rinck Galerie, Düsseldorf 08/09 – 03/11/18.”
“The exhibition forms part of an ongoing interest in private and public spaces made by and for people, and conflicts between the individual and society. Initial ideas began on Wright’s residency at the British School at Athens in 2016 which have since developed into a body of work that draws out relationships between shared identities, cultures and trade as well as individualism, society and responsibility, with particular focus on an Athenian engineer and his vacant Shopping Centre Rea. The exhibition includes sculpture, installation, moving image, photography and textiles.”
“The script is made up from a variety of sources, primarily an interview between Mike Wallace and Frank Lloyd Wright (1957), and also some excerpts from D.Hoffman’s book on Wright’s ‘Falling Water’ (which inspired the engineer to build the Rea Shopping Centre), the protagonist Howard Roark in Ayn Rand’s ‘The Fountainhead’ (who was allegedly based on the architect Wright), and ‘The Organization Man’ (1956) by William H.Whyte, which is a curious account of the rise of bureaucracy and the ‘middle-man’ in 1950’s America.”