Gesche Würfel "Go for Gold! The Transformation of the Lower Lea Valley" at Civilian Art Projects
Opening Reception: Friday, February 19, 7-9pm
Exhibition Runs: February 19 - March 20, 2010
Civilian Art Projects is pleased to present photographic selections from Gesche Würfel's multi-year project Go for Gold! The solo exhibition Go for Gold! The Transformations of the Lower Lea Valley, a first for the artist in Washington, DC, opens to the public on Friday, February 19 at 7pm and will be on view until March 20, 2010.
Go for Gold! depicts the transformation of London's landscape in preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games. A trained urban planner, Würfel began the project in 2006 as an investigation into globalization and how it disrupts relationships between residents and their natural and built environment. According to the Al Miner, who penned the essay for the exhibition, "the sinister side of urban renewal is revealed in Go For Gold. Pink pylons and a lapis blue, concrete wall are futile barriers against progress. As the blue wall fades into the sky behind an orange construction fence, the battle is almost lost. A roadside billboard advertises only decay, peeling paper from ads long faded beyond recognition drips down the surface like tears. Other images offer even fewer clues about the region's almost eradicated history. The primordial ooze of evolution resembles a river of jade and gold, but is ominously enclosed by a grey moldy roof, while in another piece only trees survive. We must rely on the artist's titles, like the text on forgotten tombstones, to tell us the fates of these seemingly blank canvases. Geshe Würfel's work tells not of the competition between athletes, but rather between urban generations and, indirectly, between cities that vie for the wealth and power of hosting the Olympics. By deleting human presence in her images, much as the Olympic construction has in these spaces, Würfel allows us to imagine what came before and quietly contemplate if regeneration requires the erasure of even the faintest palimpsest or guarantees that we will come out better on the other side. A swansong for the local communities that this global event is destroying, these poetic images will remain far longer than their subjects." Gesche Würfel was born in Bremerhaven, Germany. She holds a degree in Spatial Planning from the University of Dortmund, Germany, where she worked for several years in the field of regeneration and public participation. She completed her MA in Photography and Urban Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she graduated with a distinction in 2006. She currently works and lives in Boston, MA. Her work has been exhibited widely, among others in the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2007 show, which is an exhibition of the most promising new talent to emerge from art schools across the United Kingdom. Her work has recently been published in "Younger Than Jesus: The Artist Directory", co-published by the New Museum and Phaidon. Al Miner is and artist and Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
Exhibition hours:
Wednesday & Saturday 1-6pm, Friday 4-8pm, and Tuesday and Thursday by appointment.
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