The Lowry & Rambert present
PERPETUAL MOVEMENT
An exhibition about contemporary art and dance
The Lowry
Sat 29 October 2016 – Sun 26 February 2017
Sun – Fri 11am – 5pm. Sat 10am – 5pm. Admission: Free
HM The Queen isn’t the only one celebrating a 90th birthday this year. Britain’s national dance company, Rambert, has equalled that milestone – and is the inspiration for a new, major exhibition at The Lowry in Salford.
Opening on Sat 29 October, Perpetual Movement features the work of four contemporary artists – including Turner Prize-nominee, Goshka Macuga and Scottish conceptual artist, Katie Paterson.
Each presents work that responds to Company founder, Dame Marie Rambert’s call for ‘perpetual movement – ceaseless change in the search for new art and ideas’. Using Rambert’s archive as a starting point, the artists all have a very different take on how contemporary art and contemporary dance can converge.
Goshka Macuga’s sculptural environments blur the roles of artist, curator and collector. Her primary concern is in imaginative acts of retelling history and stories. Her installation for Perpetual Movement includes two moving conveyor belts which will act as a platform upon which dancers will present special performances referencing Stand and Stare – a work Rambert staged in 2006 inspired by LS Lowry.
Katie Paterson, meanwhile, presents Candle (from Earth into a Black Hole) providing an imagined journey through space, by way of scent. Each layer of the candle has been crafted with a bio-chemist and perfumer to smell of a different planet or celestial object, based on descriptions from astronauts and scientific conjecture. A mixture of the real and the imagined, it sits still and inert until the end of the exhibition when it is lit and the scents waft from the melting wax as it burns over 12 hours in the gallery space.
Berlin-based Michaela Zimmer uses mixed media and PVC drapery to present multi-layered works that have a strong relationship to the body. Elements of physical performance can be seen through sweeping, fluid lines and sudden gestures; while digital artist Leila Johnston uses heat mapping to extraordinary effect to showcase the elegance of dance in and out of water on screen.
Designed by award-winning production designer Michael Howells, the exhibition also includes selected items from the Rambert archive – including the original costumes from Andreé Howard’s Lady into Fox and founder Dame Marie Rambert’s notebooks containing her hand-written manuscript for Quicksilver, her autobiography.
Julia Fawcett OBE, chief executive of The Lowry, said: “Rambert is one of The Lowry’s four Partner Companies and has been presenting work to North West audiences on our stages since we opened in 2000. This exhibition pays tribute, not to existing work or that which is in-development, but to the very principles through which Rambert has achieved such acclaim.
“Rambert has a long history of collaborating across art forms – something that The Lowry embraces at every opportunity – and I look forward to seeing the work of Macuga, Patterson and others in our galleries for visitors to enjoy.”
