Contemporary Art Platform Season Opening 2016-2017

 

ATTRACTION
Quentin Carnaille

Opening reception: 21/9/2016

Time: 7:00 – 9:00pm

Exhibition dates: 22/9/2016 – 21/10/2016

Location: Contemporary Art Platform / Main Exhibition Space

About the exhibition:

Who are we? What is our past? What does the future hold for us? It was with those questions in mind that in 2010 Quentin Carnaille began his first series of works that was to occupy him until 2015.

Focused on the notion of time, he frees the gears from their mechanical arrangement by giving them a new poetic aesthetics thus inviting Man to emancipation. Both abstract and figurative, his works are intended as a singular creation, in terms of form and scope.

This series, made entirely of pieces of clockwork and magnets, celebrates the idea of time; an unalterable time over which matter transforms itself. The constant presence of magnets gives his work an invisible force and a universal attraction.

Quentin Carnaille talks to us about the relativity of time in the Space age with his "zero-gravity" and abstract sculptures, and the time of Man with his figurative representations.

All his sculptures are marked by a profound desire to produce original pieces and to reinterpret certain iconic works in the History of Art. With this series, he expresses an intimate rhythm, a personal vision and a universal questioning purposefully addressed to the future.

“Time only has meaning with the evolution of matter, which never ceases to change in form and organization. Man is an extraordinary catalyst of that transformation, a true agent of the metamorphosis of matter.”

INDULGENCES: REBORN
Mohammad Al-Hemd

Opening reception: 21/9/2016

Time: 7:00 – 9:00pm

Exhibition dates: 22/9/2016 – 28/9/2016

Location: Contemporary Art Platform / The Art Room

About the exhibition:
History repeats itself in similar cycles no matter how long those cycles are; whether they are days, years, decades, centuries, or even millenniums.  We may not notice these repetitions as they occur because of the changes in time or the new pattern that they may take, yet we only notice them once they become part of history. This installation attempts to relate what is happening now in the Middle East to what was happening in the past. In particular, this installation emphasizes the similarities between the current events in the Middle East and the events in Europe during the dark ages.

During the dark ages, Catholic priests had the ultimate power. They preyed on the trust of the common man, which was hindered by the spread of illiteracy. Priests promised sinners salvation for a levy. In a similar fashion, some groups are misusing the name of religion in the Middle East, where poverty and paucity of the good education are also ubiquitous.

In this installation, the similarity between both periods is underscored. In particular, the video highlights the dark ritual elements in a suicide bombers’ preparation. Furthermore, the insertion of elements from a catholic sacramental service underlines the twisted notion that religion can be used to justify the commitment of cruel actions. 

The suicide vests are the contemporary equivalent to the indulgences from the dark ages. Both are utilized by the so-called religious men and marketed as the key to salvation and god’s forgiveness. Moreover, this installation can be seen in two perspectives. First, it explains to non-Muslims that the current violence is the fruit of abusing religion and following a false path and in some ways, it’s a revival of the indulgences. Second, it warns Muslims that they are living in their own dark age and they need an awakening.

Website capkuwait.com