A collaborative project by Eduardo Padilha and Michael Schwab

Studio 1.1, London

11/05 - 01/06/2008

Private View: 10/05/2008 6-8pm

Artists' Talk: 25/05/2008 3.30pm

Click for the Full Circle project website.

The circle symbolises probably the most profound human desire: the desire for order and completeness. We ourselves are also circles with a centre and a horizon, and we connect into social circles of all shapes and sizes. It is as much an aesthetic idea and a social concept as it is a mathematical figure. However, the times and places we live in do not easily lend themselves for such an ideal: we are never quite complete, never quite in the centre of ourselves and our social horizon; and we are not as perfect as the line that follows the radius around the centre.

Using the figure of a circle the artists are activating all those connotations - the circle ceases to be the ideal of perfection and become the means of enquiry into the very fabric of our busy urban lives. It becomes a sounding board skilfully inserted into the reality of our London space with which it interferes, amplifying its multitude of overtones.

The project extends this approach by using various media and materials - drawings, paint, photographs, fabric, and installation - creating many layers of resonance. The exhibition is intended to work very much with the given space within and beyond the gallery walls as well as in a conceptual space that extends the artistic experience into discussions and publications. Full Circle is a platform from which art can approach life.