Deborah RundlePolitical Colours, 2018
black shirt with printed text, military patch and officers’ stars, khaki jacket with printed text, mannequin torsi
commissioned by Te Tuhi, AucklandOptimism of the Will, 2018
two fluorescent tubes and batten holders, vinyl cut textphoto by Sam Hartnett
Deborah RundlePolitical Colours, 2018 (install view)
black shirt with printed text, military patch and officers’ stars, khaki jacket with printed text, mannequin torsi
commissioned by Te Tuhi
photo by Sam Hartnett
Deborah RundleAre We Not Ready?, 2018 (install view)
double sided wool tapestry, wooden frame and string
photo by Sam Hartnett
Deborah RundleA Dream Seems Like a Dream, 2018
portable Olivetti typewriter, paper, desk and desk blotterAre We Not Ready?, 2018
Double sided wool tapestry, wooden frame and stringphoto by Sam Hartnett
Deborah RundleAre We Not Ready?, 2018
double sided wool tapestry, wooden frame and string
photo by Sam Hartnett
Deborah RundleA Dream Seems Like a Dream, 2018 (detail)
portable Olivetti typewriter, paper, desk and desk blotter
photo by Sam Hartnett
Deborah RundleAuspices 1943-, 2018 (install view)
looped digital animation, 15’00”
photo by Sam Hartnett
Deborah RundleOptimism of the Will, 2018 (detail)
two fluorescent tubes, battens, vinyl cut text
courtesy of the artist
Deborah RundleOptimism of the Will, 2018 (detail)
two fluorescent tubes, battens, vinyl cut text
courtesy of the artist
Expanding upon research undertaken during her 2018 Wallace New Zealand Residency at The British School at Rome, and presented alongside new work, Are We Not Ready? is a solo exhibition by Deborah Rundle that draws upon the Prison Notebooks of Italian neo-Marxist Antonio Gramsci to create a suite of six works that examine his notion of common sense.
‘Communal sense’, or senso comune, refers to ideas that are widely accepted in popular consciousness but do not serve the populace. Rundle explores this collective impulse through a series of transcriptions across political fields, including labour and civic life.
In A dream seems like a dream, Rundle uses a Studio 45 typewriter to type a passage extracted from the utopian writings of Adriano Olivetti, owner of the Olivetti manufacturing company and originator of The Community Movement. Cross-hatching the text is a ‘net work’ reminiscent of Gramsci, suggesting a pulling through of unresolved ideas from the past.
Seven birds appear in Auspices 1943-, above a 1943 map of Rome produced by the British War Office. This is the number that any bird flies in harmony with inside the swarm of thousands that comprises a murmuration of starlings. Here, the artist draws on the ancient practice of augury to ask ‘what omens can we read today in the flight pattern of these birds?'
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Review - EyeContact
