Alexis M Teplin
sss T !!
Hayward Gallery Project Space
6.30 – 8.30pm, Friday 18 January
Alexis M Teplin’s installation presents a new series of paintings and sculptures relating to the beginnings of abstraction in twentieth-century art. Visually, her brightly coloured, abstract works relate to Wassily Kandinsky’s idea of creating ‘visual music’ through painted marks that would optically ‘sing’ together. Teplin explores the ways in which abstract form and colour, like music, affect our emotions. As she explains, ‘in my work I try to negotiate the relationship between rhythm, colour, and movement.’ Together, the paintings create the ‘sound-word’ or phrase ‘sss T !!’, exploring the seductiveness of form as well as lyrical colour.
The trigger for the works in this exhibition was Teplin’s fascination with Oscar Wilde‘s psychosexual drama Salomé (1891) and Richard Strauss’s interpretation of the play in his opera of the same name (1903-5), which will be performed at the Royal Festival Hall on 19 January. Two of Teplin’s paintings incorporate prints by Aubrey Beardsley which were made to illustrate Wilde’s text. Alongside the paintings in ‘sss T !!’, plaster sculptures combined with found objects appear like protagonists in a play, positioned on a large stage. At once abstract and figurative, they make reference to a body – maybe that of Salome herself.
Exhibition continues until 10 March 2013.
Alexis M Teplin in Conversation
Dan Graham’s Waterloo Sunset Pavilion at the Hayward Gallery
2:30pm, Sunday 20 January
Alexis M Teplin talks about her Hayward Project Space exhibition with Hayward Gallery Chief Curator, Stephanie Rosenthal.
