Sorcha Dallas

Faith Wilding’s performance ‘Waiting’* is a seminal work which questioned both the role of women in the 1970s and challenged what art could be at that time. As a female artist working over thirty years later, Davis seeks to readdress Wilding’s notion of waiting in relation to her own present. Conceived specifically for Art Basel, ‘Waiting in 1972; What about 2007?’ furthers an enquiry into the relationship between the two-dimensional image, the three-dimensional form and the viewer.

‘Her installations operate as minimal stage sets through which our passage is carefully orchestrated encouraging associative connections to ricochet back and forth between each element or gradually accumulate.’**

Confronting the possibilities and limitations within that exchange, Davis returns to Wilding’s projection of woman as a subject-in-process presenting an installation and accompanying bookwork which situates herself in the space between the observer and the observed. Focusing primarily on the potential of the ceramic vessel, Lucie Rie’s*** meticulous attention to form and surface has had a profound influence on the reading of the expectant receptacle (the rigour Rie applied to her creative process notably echoing Wilding’s relentless rendition of ‘Waiting’). Referencing Rie and Wilding, both in terms of subject and process, Davis attempts to challenge the position of ‘waiting’ today.

Davis was born in New Zealand in 1977 and completed her BA Printmaking in 2000 and an MPhil in Art in Organisational contexts in 2001 at Glasgow School of Art. Exhibitions include ‘Country Grammar’ at The Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; ‘Flesh at War With Enigma’ at The Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland; ‘Spacemakers’ Munich, Germany; ‘Participant’ at Sorcha Dallas Gallery, Glasgow (all 2004) and solo shows at The Breeder Athens, October 2005; Dicksmith, London, February 2006 and The Kunsthalle, Basel, April 2006. Davis recently had a solo show at Art Now, Tate Britain in February 2007. Forthcoming projects include a group show curated by Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York and a solo show at Galerie Kamm, Berlin both in September 2007. Davis lives and works in Glasgow.

A 15-minute monologue, scripted and performed by Faith Wilding in the Performance programme at Womanhouse, Los Angeles in 1972. “Waiting” condenses a woman’s entire life into a monotonous, repetitive cycle of waiting for life to begin while she is serving and maintaining the lives of others. See www_art.cfa.cmu.edu/www.wilding/. * Quote from Lizzie Carey-Thomas text for Kate Davis ‘Your body is a battleground still’ , Arrt Now Tate Britain, 2007. *** Born in 1902 (d.1995) in Vienna, Lucie Rie became an influential British studio potter whose work has had a considerable impact on the direction of modern ceramics.

Supported by the Scottish Arts Council