Reinis Lismanis: Second-Hand Ideas

About

Second-Hand Ideas, a solo exhibition by Reinis Lismanis, takes its title from E. M. Forster’s science fiction story The Machine Stops in which people live underground in cells, never meeting in person and only communicating via devices. A protagonist announces that one should be wary of first-hand ideas and avoid direct observation that is too subjective and contaminated with emotions: 'You who listen to me are in a better position to judge about [insert subject] than I am. Your descendants will be even in a better position than you, for they will learn what you think. I think, and yet another intermediate will be added to the chain. And in time there will come a generation that has got beyond facts, beyond impressions, a generation absolutely colourless, a generation seraphically free from taint of personality, which will see [insert subject] not as it happened, nor as they would like it to have happened, but as it would have happened had it taken place in the days of the Machine.' The Machine provides humans with comforts and meets all their needs - it takes over. 

In a process-oriented, and less dystopian, manner, Lismanis acknowledges and challenges the conventional structures and frameworks present in image-making, display systems and production in general. His ongoing interest in engaging with a multitude of agents present in the everyday of his practice offers an opportunity to reflect on past work whilst simultaneously using it as a source for producing new iterations and interpretations. Lismanis's artistic work encompasses media such as photography, spray-painting and collage, and the material presented in Second-Hand Ideas has evolved from continuous use of photographic and artistic production paraphernalia. Consequently, materials, production conditions, studio and exhibition spaces play a foundational role in the work. In Second-Hand Ideas, viewers are welcome to explore primarily existing works in a setting more akin to an artist's studio or an archive than a fixed and static exhibition.

Reinis Lismanis (1992) is a Latvian artist based in London. He has held solo exhibitions at Exhibition Hall Arsenals, Latvian National Museum of Art (Riga), Brockley Gardens (London) and Brighton CCA: Dorset Place (Brighton). His works have been included in group shows at KAI Art Center (Tallinn), Benaki Museum (Athens), National Library of Latvia (Riga), Riga Photomonth and Riga Photography Biennial, Fotopub Festival (Novo Mesto), Galleria SP3 (Treviso) and FUGA (Budapest). He has published two monographs – ‘Trial and Error’ (Skinnerboox, 2019) and ‘T6031_T6061_T8001’ (NoRoutine Books, 2019). Lismanis holds a degree in photography from the University of Brighton and is currently studying art history at Birkbeck, University of London.