Ilona Sagar/The Grandeur Mass (Auditoria) 
Exhibition: 8th-  30th November 2008
Private View and Performances: 6th and 7th Nov from 6.30pm-9pm

T1+2 Gallery is proud to announce the first major solo show by the artist Ilona Sagar

“The work of Ilona Sagar slips duplicitous the cracks where meanings emerge and where we, through our making of them, perform – and they crumble.  (Meanwhile, what is Truth?  What is Beauty?).  Sagar begs an ironic solidarity between viewer and viewed as we look past what we see plainly to traverse the façade.  And we look. And we walk.  And she measures the narrative goes all Borges on our ass.  Confronting binary with allegory, layering appearance with illusion, Sagar’s work forces a question of received knowledge – or at least a question of how we receive that knowledge. How do we see, and interact, with the body?  How do we traverse space?  How do we engage with the object calm?  Demanding, the work nevertheless remains vulnerable: open and inviting of us to pursue its baroque; this pursuit the becoming of our beginning to understand.”
Kristen Krieder

‘The Grandeur Mass (Auditoria)’ is the second in ‘The Grandeur Mass’ series. It continues Ilona Sagar’s* exploration of spectatorship, theatrical narrative and material process. The title embodies a playful use of verbal and visual syntax, providing the potential for multiple interpretations of  the installation.  The title ‘The Grandeur Mass (Auditoria)’ makes reference to Stemper’s classical architectural theory and the religious ceremony of ‘mass’. It draws on the idea of ‘forum’: ‘auditoria’ - hinting at grand oratorio in the choral and operatic tradition. This overt yet ambiguous use of language carries the duplicity constructed within the piece. The complex layering of spatial language through image, performance and sculptural elements composes an evocative sense of the grandiose. At the same time this is undermined by a material dishonesty which is apparent in the unexpected use of cheap materials such as plywood, plaster, sand and spray paint, which are used to dramatic and opulent effect, within the installation.  

The work seeks to unsettle and contradict an agreed comprehension of familiar architectural forms through the construction of a filmic and performative environment.  Ilona has utilised the recurring semantic language found in the theatre, the church and the civic space. ‘Auditoria’ focuses on common themes which run through these types of public building. All three categories of space are designed for collective interaction with something greater or separate from our own individual lives. Each of these buildings engages the individual with spectacle as a participant or audience. In either role there is a submission to the rules inherent within the design of the building and its imposing order. The spectators are generally focused on a single position of authority such as stage, alter or mayoral throne. This encourages mass action while discouraging individual response.The bringing together of film, performance and sculpture allows a fictional narrative to be formed, surrounding a transient place not rooted in reality but bearing a closer relationship to theatrical scenery. 

*Ilona Sagar’s  practice explores a language of performance, film and assemblage that is focused on the intangible fragments of human relations. As a recent graduate of  Goldsmiths College London (Hons) Fine Art (Studio Practice and Contemporary Critical Studies), she has developed an articulate interest in the manipulation of a material language and in turn, what this may convey to an audience. Her work often uses the processes involved in making, to construct a fractured sense of narrative.  Illusion and material [dis]honesty set the stage for works that seek to seduce, alluding to something familiar yet other.  This sense of duplicity is apparent in the unexpected use of cheap materials such as plaster, plywood, spray paint and sand which are used to dramatic effect. These methods are used to develop a transient reality that is mediated through the established forms of institutional communication, such as the museum, the civic space, the church and the theatre.