Caroline Achaintre, Ida Ekblad, Sebastian Lloyd Rees, Laurence Owen, Aude Pariset, Tori Wrånes

Image: Tori Wrånes, 'Performance elements, Drastic Pants', 2016 (detail)

How do you capture an action? Documentation of performance art has often focused on the photographic or filmic in an attempt to recreate something transitory. Here the fleeting experienced whole is reduced to a static view or a single perspective. Absent Bodies takes the idea of performance as a starting point, exploring ways to portray or reflect action. Here the body in movement is missing. Instead we are left with props and costume, stand-in elements that reflect process and action.

In the work of Caroline Achaintre, Ida Ekblad, Sebastian Lloyd Rees, Laurence Owen, Aude Pariset and Tori Wrånes, we feel the presence of the artists’ hands. The pieces brought together here have involved direct action. There is a tactility, a freedom of touch. Materiality is central to these objects, from latex to paint, ceramic to fabric. Touch is one of the most immediate ways humanity understands the world. The haptic is intertwined with perception. The work here is textured, bumpy, layered, wildly applied emphasising an artwork and artist’s physical engagement in space.

Although some of the works on show hint towards the figurative, the body itself is missing. We are left with humanoid holes and marks. Instead of the body, we are left with an aftershock. There result is a stage where the set, not the players, perform. 

Caroline Achaintre (b. 1969 Toulouse, France) spent her formative years in Germany studying Fine Art at Kunsthochschule in Halle, and her postgraduate degrees at Chelsea College of Art and Design and Goldsmiths College, London. She trained as a blacksmith before coming to London where she lives and works. Solo exhibitions include BALTIC, Tate Britain, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arter Contemporanea Rivoli, Turin. In 2014, she was artist in residence at Camden Arts Centre. www.carolineachaintre.com

Ida Ekblad (b. 1980 in Oslo, Norway) lives and works in Oslo. She studied at Central St Martins in London, The National Academy of Art in Oslo and Mountain School of Arts in LA. She has had solo exhibitions at international institutions including BALTIC in Gateshead, the Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm and in 2013 the National Museum of Norway - Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo. In 2011, she exhibitied in the 54th Venice Biennale.

Sebastian Lloyd Rees (b. 1986 Stavanger, Norway) lives and works in London. Recent presentations of his work include '… alarming … invasive … a violation … lawless … disrespectful' at Mothers Tankstation Limited (2015) and L’albero della cuccagna, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2015). Lloyd Rees also works in ongoing collaboration with Ali Eisa as Lloyd Corporation, having recently participated in Frieze London Live Projects (2016), and staged projects at the Hayward Gallery and Carlos/Ishikawa in London. Upcoming projects include Prada Foundation/Qatar Museum Authorities.

Laurence Owen (b. 1984 Gloucester, UK) lives and works in London. He studied BA Fine Art Painting at Falmouth College of Art and has a Postgraduate Degree in Fine Art at the Royal Academy Schools. Awards include the John Moores Painting Prize (2016), the Painter-Stainers Gordon Luton Award (2015), and the E. Vincent Harris Painting Prize (2014). He has exhibited at Evelyn Yard Gallery, London, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool and the Whitechapel Gallery, London. www.laurenceowenart.com

Aude Pariset (b. 1983 Versailles, France) lives and works in Berlin. Solo exhibitions include ‘Débris Legacy’ at Sandy Brown, Berlin (2016) and ‘Greenhouses’, Cell Project Space, London (2016) and at Ginerva Gambino, Cologne and Kunstverein Nürnberg. Pariset’s work is currently on view in ‘Hello World’ in ARS17 at Kiasma Museum, Helsinki until October 2017. www.audepariset.net

Tori Wrånes (b. 1978 Kristiansand, Norway) is a vocalist and artist, combining voice and sculpture in the field of performance. Her recent works include a solo exhibition at Carl Freedman Gallery in London, and works commissioned for the 19th Biennale of Sydney 2014 and PERFORMA 13, New York. Her solo show with the Museum of Contemporary Art, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo opens April 20. www.toriwranes.com 

Francesca Gavin is a writer and curator based in London. She is a contributing editor at Kaleidoscope, Twin, Sleek and AnOther. She was the co-curator of the Historical Exhibition of Manifesta11 in Zurich, and has curated exhibitions internationally including E-Vapor-8 (319 Scholes and Site Sheffield), The Dark Cube (Palais de Tokyo), and The New Psychedelia (MU). Gavin has written five books including The Book of Hearts, 100 New Artists and Hell Bound: New Gothic Art, and contributes to publications including The Financial Times, Newsweek, Dazed, Artsy and Mousse.