Eventhttps://doi.org/10.25620/e131204-1
Exhibition
4 – 16 Dec 2013

Patrick Vernon

Unfinished

A painting might be constructed
from absence to presence,
or erased from presence to absence;
there is no way to be sure.
James Elkins

A collection of works on paper by French artist Patrick Vernon (1958-1998) went on show at the ICI Berlin. Vernon’s artworks, mostly watercolour or pen and ink washes on paper, are a polysemic play with figures, colours, forms – and, their dissolution. The exhibition Unfinished focussed on Vernon’s experimental and playful works, works-in-process involving partial objects, unfinished figures and the interaction of parts and the whole.

The vernissage accompanied the ICI Library Event that explored the creative and menacing potential of the notion of unfinishedness, as part of ICI’s focus on constituting wholes. While some works always remain unfinished despite the unending desire to complete them, others are abandoned unwillingly or explicitly declared unfinished (what in art is called the non finito). How does a writer, a researcher, an artist, or a musician know when a piece of work is finished? And what happens if one cannot finish?

Venue

ICI Berlin
(Click for further documentation)
An ICI Berlin event curated by Claudia Peppel
patrickvernon.de

In English

First published on: https://www.ici-berlin.org/events/patrick-vernon/
Rights: © ICI Berlin

Part of the ICI Library Event

Unfinished

How does a writer, a researcher, an artist, or a musician know when a piece of work is finished? And what happens if one cannot finish? One may be stuck out of boredom or dissatisfaction with what one has produced so far. Or it may be the case that one struggles with fear, with procrastination before deadlines, or simply with a lack of ideas. While some works always remain unfinished despite the unending desire to complete them, others are abandoned unwillingly or explicitly declared unfinished (what in art is called the non finito). To what extent is the notion of unfinishedness inscribed in works that are conceived as open form? And is the constantly revised and manipulated multitude the format of the future? We might also ask: What are the satisfying and unsatisfying effects of such a disposition? And how does our imagination deal with empty spaces, fragments, and unfinished parts?

The ICI Library Event explored the creative and menacing potential of the notion of unfinishedness within the ICI focus on Constituting Wholes.Programme

Welcome: Corinna Haas and Christoph Holzhey
Introduction to the exhibition: Claudia Peppel

Part 1
Done with: Words Taken at Their Word

‘I may hang on my own eyelashes, ripening and swelling, acting out all the parts in the play until I run. The plot’s the only thing we know today’.

Part 2
Undone: States of Incompleteness

Inspired by Pascal Mercier’s Perlmann’s Silence and Susan Sontag’s Early Diaries, this performance explores the different kinds of inabilities that haunt creative work and academic life.

Venue

ICI Berlin
(Click for further documentation)

With

Eirini Avramopoulou
Daniel Barber
Alice Gavin
Peta Hinton
Shannon Hoff
Jamila Mascat
Siouxzi Connor
Nahal Naficy
Filippo Trentin
Arnd Wedemeyer

Organized by

Corinna Haas
Claudia Peppel
An ICI Berlin event

Part of the ICI Library Event

Containing also

Cite as: ‘Patrick Vernon: Unfinished’, exhibition presented at the ici library event Unfinished, ICI Berlin, 4–16 December 2013 <https://doi.org/10.25620/e131204-1>