About
waterside contemporary invites you to celebrate the new year, to mark the launch of the_water_side, and a new public artwork.
the_water_side, our new occasional publication, responds to our exhibition programme with newly commissioned essays and artists' projects printed alongside writing that inspired or is inspired by our work.
Issue_1 addresses and reflects on our recent and upcoming projects, containing essays by Sean Cubitt writing on George Barber's The Freestone Drone and by Marko Stamenkovic writing on Frederik Van Simeay's work currently at waterside.
Hidden within the publication are artist contributions by Karen Mirza and Brad Butler, who present extracts from the film script treatment co-authored by China Miéville, and a pictorial work by Frederik Van Simaey.
We are pleased to be able to give a new home to Untitled Garden, a work by Abbas Akhavan composed of six leylandii trees. The species' rapid, thick growth is often used to enforce privacy and separate private land from public space. Previously sited in a place-specific installation at the Delfina Foundation, the work will now occupy a permanent space outside the gallery acting this time as a bridge between the white cube interior and its locus.
The afternoon will also be an occasion to see Out of the Blues, a solo exhibition by Frederik Van Simaey. The artist observes unexpected appearances and realisations. In photographs, drawings, and installations, we see the subjects in a curious mirror stage, some intent on establishing their own self, some avoiding it.
the_water_side is edited by Phoebe Stubbs and designed by Matthieu Becker.
Born in Tehran, Abbas Akhavan has been living in Canada since 1992. His practice ranges from site-specific ephemeral installations to drawing and video, with a recent focus on spaces just outside the home the garden, the backyard and other domesticated landscapes.
Frederik Van Simaey, born in Kortrijk, Belgium, works in installation, sculpture, photography, video and drawing. He is a graduate of HISK, and works in Ghent.
