Measurable truths, definitive outcome
Tenderpixel Gallery, London, 22 February to 23 March 2013

Karel Miler, from the 'Mriz' ('Grating') series, 1974. Courtesy of the artist and SVIT Prague

Tomas Chaffe, Cevdet Erek, Marcell Esterhazy, Dora Maurer and Karel Miler
Organized by Borbala Soos

“Everywhere where there is interaction between a place, a time and an expenditure of energy, there is rhythm.
Therefore:
a) repetition (of movements, gestures, action, situations, differences);
b) interferences of linear processes and cyclical processes;
c) birth, growth, peak then decline and end.”

Henri Lefebvre, ‘Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life’

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Georg Cantor revolutionised mathematics with the concept of a set. Not only a collection of objects, a set includes the rules we apply to them. By multiplying the reservoir of parameters conveyed through situations, objects and scores, the works in this exhibition plead for the rediscovery and conscious reflection on the construction of reality.

‘Of Parameters’ includes documentations of actions (Karel Miler), simple experiments with perception of rhythms, colour and sound (Dora Maurer) and measurements of space and time (Tomas Chaffe, Cevdet Erek and Marcell Esterhazy): historical works from 1970-80 and notable contemporary examples.

Subjective and objective, universal and trivial, the absurdity of attempts to pronounce universal rules about one’s existence is underlined by the subtitle ‘Measurable truths, definitive outcome’. The featured artists reveal structures through a visual manifestation of logical formulas by observing their immediate surroundings, creating systems through which the world is apprehended and their lives are organised.

These works are not merely remarks on living conditions, but also draw attention to the uncomfortable limitations which politics, economics or other circumstances also force upon us. With simple experiments and mathematical applications, artists are not only able to analyse situations, but also begin to take control over their everyday surroundings.