ATTENTION RESTORATION
ALEX MARGO ARDEN
02/12/23 - 21/01/24
Attention Restoration raises questions of restoration, legibility and reconstruction in reference to Margate Caves. The works shown consider how acts of reinscription can erase and clarify simultaneously. Paintings on the cave walls have been subjected to re-painting / over-painting from the early 1800s to the present day, each time destroying the original while allowing the image to remain for longer. The tension between the conditions of the cave and the longevity of paint require intervention. As new paint conceals old paint, the animal and human symbols have the lifetime of their depictions extended and in some cases their identities morphed or shifted through time: a dragon became a lion, Adam and Eve were recovered as orangutans, shackled prisoners were destroyed, and a dog in a kennel made a disappearance.
Arden has rescaled and reconstructed Margate Caves as a series of theatrical backcloths. As the cave interiors are rehearsed, recovered are historical and speculative versions of the cave paintings. When presented in Attention Restoration the thirteen backcloth paintings can be studied in medium format photographs, as well as physically within a sculpture in the final room: performing as a collapsed touring theatrical set – backcloths, rigging and lighting have fallen to the floor, or are waiting to rise.
Alex Margo Arden is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in London. Her work excavates theatrical models of production and interpretation. She considers questionable authority through creating multilayered performances, installations, and odours. Previous projects have been presented at Art-O-Rama, Marseille; Ginny on Frederick, London; Cell Project Space, London; La Casa Encendida, Madrid; World Pride 2021, Malmö. Her work has been written about in Frieze, Art Monthly, The Art Newspaper, Flash Art, Another Magazine, and American Vogue. She is currently studying at the Royal Academy Schools and she previously graduated from Goldsmiths where she was awarded the Hamad Butt Memorial Prize.
