Shaan Syed - The Andrew Project
Saturday, 5 April 2014, 7–9 pm
Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin
The Andrew Project -
1000 and Something Portraits in Toronto, Berlin and London
A project and book launch by SHAAN SYED
with a performance by BENNY NEMEROFSKY RAMSAY, featuring dancer/choreographer JEREMY WADE
Galerie Michael Janssen is pleased to host The Andrew Project book launch, a project by artist Shaan Syed. For the launch, Syed has invited artist and diarist Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay to create a new performance in which a man reflects on recent Berlin history while dancing at a nightclub. The piece involves a video projection, sound and a live performance by celebrated American dancer and choreographer Jeremy Wade.
The Andrew Project involved Syed fly-posting over 1000 posters of a man, accompanied by the name “Andrew” in Toronto, Berlin and London between 2010 and 2013. Co-published by FormContent and S1 Artspace (UK), the book documents the graffiti and public interaction that resulted from the portraits appearing on the city streets. Including text and images by seven invited artists and writers, a foreign correspondent for abc, and a branding executive; the book explores ideas around urbanism and location; advertising, image and abstraction; absence versus presence and the personal as it relates to the public.
Shaan Syed is an artist whose studio practice focuses on painting and questions distinctions made between established notions of abstraction and representation. His work has been shown internationally and has been included in several anthologies on painting. He is a recent recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant for painters.
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay is an artist and diarist. His work in video, sound, and text contemplates the history of song, the rendering of love and emotion into language, and the resurrection and manipulation of voices from history - sung, spoken or screamed. Nemerofsky’s work has been exhibited internationally, appearing in numerous private collections as well as the National Gallery of Canada.
Jeremy Wade is an American choreographer and dancer. A graduate of Amsterdam's School for New Dance Development, his first evening-length work, Glory, received a New York Bessie award. He has been based in Berlin since 2006, where he works closely with the Hebbel Theater, collaborating and building community with local artists, dramaturges and sound designers. He is a guest professor at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste in Munich. Co-Published by FormContent and S1 Artspace, and designed by Atelier Dreibholz, The Andrew Project book is hardback, linen-bound with three colour foil-blocking on cover, 176 pages with a set of 3 postcard inserts. An accompanying 40 page supplement is printed on bible paper and contains the artist and writer contributions, selected by Syed. Edition of 750, distributed by AnagramBooks.
