Shiver in the Shift, 2012 at Parra & Romero, Madrid.
Kajsa Dahlberg, Gaylen Gerber, David Lamelas, Karl Larsson and Lisa Tan
Curated by Eva González-Sancho
an urge, pense-bête
to not forget
and let the imprint
from an aging entity
made out of empty shells
shiver in the shift
between linear reasoning
and informal a rgumentation
Karl Larsson, Parrot, 2010
Shiver in the Shift is a phrase taken from Karl Larsson’s book/poem Parrot, published in 2010, the outcome of Larsson’s research into the work of Marcel Broodthaers (Belgium 1924-1976). Parrot – a mysterious and fascinating bird and also, as Larsson says, “a body inhabited by the language of others, a loyal commentator (a marginal actor).” As well as paying homage to Broodthaer’s work, Parrot also sets out to respond to a lack, to something lacking, something necessary for continuing as a poet, whatever this might be, if indeed it exists. The (sonorous and onomatopoeic) phrase Shiver in the Shift is part of another story, one that echoes the work of this major artist, infused with literary strategies and in which language so often operates as symbol or sign. In the context of the exhibition at Parra & Romero, the phrase is transferred to another context, acknowledging the narrative threads running through this group show. This is a multiple narrative, not only because the five artists present a range of different proposals, but mainly because all seem to be marked by references to a third person. Indeed, each work names, refers or alludes to other authors, although this does not take the form of simple quotation. The viewer is invited to make the distinction between reading and looking (to return to Broodthaers’s pense-bête), in order to approach the individual works, the different authors, the multiple layers that lie within each work and between the works as a group.
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