Agata Madejska’s artwork explores the power structures inherent in language and speech. These explorations are often expressed as sound, sculpture and installation, alongside post-photographic processes.
Informed by her personal history, of growing up in and migrating from post-communist Poland, Madejska has responded to the space at Flat Time House by expanding and overlaying these narratives with an exploration of the power dynamics of the domestic and intimate. The exhibition includes a series of site-specific interventions for the successive rooms of FTHo such as a padded leatherette floor, a smoke sculpture, spoken word sound piece and a large organza fabric intervention, each a specially commissioned structure or environment. Grand Habitat Horror Vacui is the artist’s first UK institutional solo show.
With a background in photography, Madejska has increasingly pushed beyond the surface of the flat image, expanding into embedded and durational forms. This new body of work examines the parameters of value and revenue by looking at various ideologies of ownership, such as assets; natural and public resources; housing and infrastructure; the woman’s body as commodity; and the body politic at large. Through oblique critique of recent political debates, in Poland and internationally, Madejska scrutinises the structures of persuasion, be they myth or fable, propaganda or spam, gossip or speculation. For Grand Habitat Horror Vacui Madejska questions the articulation of power and how modes of address are used to assemble or disintegrate the public mood.
Flat Time House (FTHo) was the studio home of John Latham (1921–2006), recognised as one of the most significant and influential British post-war artists. In 2003, Latham declared the house a living sculpture, naming it FTHo after his theory of time, ‘Flat Time’. Until his death, Latham opened his door to anyone interested in thinking about art. It is in this spirit that Flat Time House opened in 2008 as a gallery with a programme of exhibitions and events exploring the artist’s practice, his theoretical ideas and their continued relevance. It also provides a centre for alternative learning, which includes the John Latham archive, and an artist’s residency space.
Flat Time House, 210 Bellenden Road, London, SE15 4BW. Dates: 11 January–18 February. Times: Thursday–Sunday 12–6pm. Admission: Free.
Agata Madejska: Mistakes Were Made
Book launch with readings and recital at 7pm
Friday 26 January 6–8pm
