The Full Circle

A Collaborative Exhibition and Publication Project by Eduardo Padilha and
Michael Schwab

Huisrechts, Amsterdam

13.9 - 16.10 2007

Using the figure of the 'circle' as conceptual parameter in this project, the artists' aim has been to continually activate a multitude of its connotations through an ongoing process of critical discourse and studio practice. The resulting exhibition of new artworks will form only one part of the overall enquiry as the project develops through workshops, and with the assistance of contributors, into a concise publication. The exhibition at large will allow us to escape given ideals associated with the 'circle' - as closed, perfect and pure modernist or abstract vehicle. The artists' stress that the relative symbolism we associate with it "is as much an aesthetic idea and a social concept as it is mathematical figure". Eduardo and Michael subvert the figure in this way to re-order and positively charge it as a platform for deconstructing and expanding its key inherent properties.

It is on this basis that the main exhibition takes the form of a systematic multimedia installation with the artists separate works overlapping and intersecting both visually and conceptually. On the walls, floor and ceiling are mounted: drawings, paintings, photography and sculpture. We are continually reminded of the fabric in our eclectic and urban environment through the presentation of these works on all sides. Cognitively we are able to utilise these interrelating motifs in order to see beyond the gallery walls and yet find ourselves back where we started. The resulting formal effect is a jarring one, but where further investigation leads us to an intelligent and balanced mapping of an imperfect universal.
The Full Circle will travel to London early 2008.