Luke Willis Thompson

Luke Willis Thompson, autoportrait, 2017, courtesy Luke Willis Thompson; Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin/Cologne

In a series of works in performance, film, and installation, Luke Willis Thompson has worried the line between art and life, between race and place. Neither the legacies of Andy Warhol nor of Marcel Duchamp will be safe from his roving ready-mades and renegade screen tests, works that oxygenate the increasingly airless art histories of the avant-garde with the breath and stamp of a people onna move. A urinal becomes a water fountain; a superstar becomes a warrior. Thompson’s work understands the uchromaticity of blackness as an interdiction at the site of the flesh. Or is it the sight? Genocide, segregation, police murder, and routinized aggression are not the subject of these works. But they have no other scene of subjection. Or is it a scene? To enter the mind of Thompson’s work is to realize this: We can’t breathe. We must breathe. Together.

—Tavia Nyong’o

    Venue:
  • Akademie der Künste
  • KW Institute for Contemporary Art

LIST OF WORKS

AKADEMIE DER KÜNSTE

Untitled, 2015
Bronze with ready-made components
Second version of unique edition
Collection Jan Warburton, Dunedin
With the support of Creative New Zealand

KW INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART

autoportrait, 2017
35mm film, b/w, silent, 8′50′′ @ 24fps
Director of Photography: Mhairi-Clare Fitzpatrick
Film and Lighting Technician: Miranda Langevin
Project Liaison: Sara Cluggish

Commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery and produced in partnership with Create
Courtesy Luke Willis Thompson; Hopkinson Mossman, Auckland; Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin/Cologne
With the support of Creative New Zealand; Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin/Cologne

Untitled, 2015
Bronze with ready-made components
First version of unique edition
Courtesy Luke Willis Thompson; Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin/Cologne
With the support of Creative New Zealand

ZK/U – CENTER FOR ART AND URBANISTICS

Untitled, 2015
Bronze with ready-made components
Artist proof of unique edition
Collection Simon Robinson
With the support of Creative New Zealand