Ginny on Frederick, London
Alex Margo Arden
For Art-o-rama 2023, Ginny on Frederick presents a new installation of works by Alex Margo Arden.
Alex Margo Arden is a multidisciplinary artist from London and her work excavates theatrical models of production and interpretation. Her practice considers questionable authority through performances, installation, odour and painting, with works often governed by the preset programming of lighting sequences, soundscapes, and aroma dispensers. Exploring the sensory potential of re-materialising digital content (viral videos, images and memes) and re-contextualising material which audiences may have previously witnessed (oversaturated popular figures and historicised iconography), the work arouses inconsistency, or a misinformation effect. These generative processes of reproduction and reinterpretation create trails of conflating and contradictory information, building a web of fabricated truths and false lies, and reinforcing an overarching fear of forgetting.
In her work, subtle transformations occur through recreation – a photograph may be remade as a painting, a location may be re-staged with a backcloth, or a collection of objects may be reassembled – these performances of making are reenactments to interrogate identification, ownership and the processes of their own creation. Disappearances and reappearances become key strategies to challenge perception and presence – failure to appear is invoked and there are often missing performers present: objects and people ghost through the leftovers (pieces of popcorn, strands of hair, particles of smell).
Arden has been researching moments of accidental inconsistency, scandal and bleeding between the fictional and the real within the production, rehearsal and presentation of Hollywood films.
