1301PE is pleased to present a one-person exhibition by 2002 Turner Prize nominee, Fiona Banner. Banner takes inspiration from popular culture (cinema, language, pornography). She turns the big screen into wordscape, words into mere punctuation, and punctuation into formal sculpture.
In her exhibition at 1301PE, Fiona Banner utilizes imagery of the Chinook helicopter, playing with the viewer's memory to recollect the menacing context in which we know this strange bird, universally inspiring visions of war that many of us have only seen in the movies. Her punctuation landscapes point to the frustration that is the powerlessness of language to articulate meaning. Her full stops are blown up periods whose intrinsic meaning signifies the end before the beginning. Yet, Banner's works do not convey the feeling of hopelessness, but rather reveal an underlying emphasis on the basics, which are so often ignored and necessary to bring together and give meaning to the whole.
Fiona Banner was born in 1966. She lives and works in London.
One-person museum exhibitions and projects include Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen and Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee in 2002; Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver in 2000; Statements, Basel Art Fair and ASTERISK, Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen in 1999; Art Now Room, Tate Gallery, London in 1998; The Nam - 1000 page all text flick book, London in 1997; Pushing Back The Edge Of The Envelope, City Racing, London in 1994.
Selected group exhibitions include Turner Prize exhibition, Tate Britain and Remix: Contemporary Art and Pop, Tate Liverpool in 2002; American Tableaux, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, Total Object, Complete with Missing Parts, Tramway 2, Glasgow (curated by Andrew Renton), Dévoler, Institut d'art contemporain, Villeurbanne, France, Berlin Biennale, Berlin, (curated by Saskia Bos), Rooseum, Malmo, Sweden; CAC, Vilnius, Lithuania, Superman in Bed, Contemporary Art and Photography – The Collection Gaby and Wilhelm Schürmann, Museum am Ostwald, Dortmund and City Racing, ICA, London in 2001; Customized:Hot Rods, Low Riders and American Car Culture, ICA Boston, Eine Munition unter Anderen, Frankfurter Kunstverein and All You Need is Love, Laznia Center of Contemporary Art, Gdansk, Poland in 2000; 100 Drawings, PS1 New York, Babel, Ikon Gallery, Brimingham, Afterall launch, Wallace Collection, London and Cinema Cinema, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven in 1999; Slipstream, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, 5th Avenue Project at Saks, New York, Narrative Urge, Uppsala Konstmuseum, Sweden, and Point Break, Project for Tate Magazine (Commissioned by Tate Gallery, Liverpool) in 1998; Die Arbeit des Zeichnens Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen, Germany, 20/20 Kingsgate Gallery, London (accompanied by a catalogue), Need for Speed, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria, An Exhibition of Art from Britain, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, and Urban Legends - London, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany in 1997; Backpacker, The Chiang Mai Social Installation, 4th Festival of Art and Culture, Chiang Mai, Thailand, into the void, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, and General Release: Young British Artists, Scuola di St. Pasquale,Venice Biennale, Venice in 1995; Art Unlimited, Arts Council Collection, UK Tour, Institute of Cultural Anxiety, ICA, London in 1994.
