grazerkunstverein

(Exhibition)

Jason Dodge

22/06 - 24/08/2024, opening 21/06, 18:00

You wrote: the title of his exhibition is the collection of images that accompanies it. Three images of a red eye, split, side by side.

You said that the first image, a red shape against a grey backdrop, felt familiar but resisted identification. You told me that it reminds you of an eye, vigilant and watchful, intertwined with the sharpness of a pointer, guiding. 

You wrote: this image is like a half-memory, in a haze, details softened, an invitation to ponder its secrets.

In the second image, you told me, similar shapes appear. The eye and arrow merge in their enigmatic pull, centered on the screen, details blurred at the edges, as if the lens was smudged. You wondered if it is a twin to the first piece, and whether this suggests that clarity is not always necessary for understanding. Is this movement a suggestion, a gentle nudge towards meaning?

You wrote: the quality of these images will draw you towards a mysterious dance.

The third image, you said, will stand with bold clarity once the blur is mostly lifted to reveal the design. The red lines will be crisp against a brownish-white background, the eye’s form will be distinct, the cursor’s thrust confident and unwavering. You said you will want the image to speak with a clear voice, as its symbolism becomes unmistakable: the fusion of vision and direction, perception and purpose. 

You wrote: this image will crystallize what the others hinted at.

These three images, like his exhibition, did not use words. You wrote that the images themselves generated language. That they served as a premonition of something not yet realized. You said that you had heard songs of green and yellow and silver and the smell of camphor. And in that absence of words, we tried to make images speak.

The exhibition is curated by Tom Engels and will be accompanied by a publication developed by Jason Dodge, Julie Peeters, and Tom Engels.

On the occasion of the exhibition’s opening, as well as the joint openings at Halle für Kunst Steiermark and Neue Galerie Graz, a shuttle bus from and back to Vienna will be provided. 

Departure Vienna: 2:00 pm, Operngasse 4, Buszone, Wiener Staatsoper
Return 10:00 pm, Burgring 2, Halle für Kunst Steiermark

More information can be obtained by emailing office@grazerkunstverein.org.

JASON DODGE recently presented the solo exhibitions Tomorrow, I Walked to a Dark Black Star at MUDAM, Luxembourg (2024); Cut a Door in the Wolf at MACRO, Rome (2021); and They Lifted Me into the Sun and Packed My Empty Skull in Cinnamon, a six-part exhibition held at Akwa Ibom, Athens; Guimarães, Vienna; MOREpublishers with Gevaert Editions, Brussels; Galleria Franco Noero, Turin; and Gern en Regalia, New York (2020). In 2014, he curated Ronald Jones: 1987–1992 at the Grazer Kunstverein in collaboration with Krist Gruijthuijsen, its former artistic director, which was accompanied by Ronald Jones, a publication published by Grazer Kunstverein and Motto Books. Dodge founded and continues to edit the poetry imprint fivehundred places, and lives on the island of Møn in Denmark.

02Jason Dodge, Grazer Kunstverein, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
03Jason Dodge, Grazer Kunstverein, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
04Jason Dodge, Grazer Kunstverein, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
05Jason Dodge, Grazer Kunstverein, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
06Jason Dodge, Grazer Kunstverein, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
07Jason Dodge, Grazer Kunstverein, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
08Jason Dodge, Grazer Kunstverein, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
09Jason Dodge, Grazer Kunstverein, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
10Jason Dodge, Grazer Kunstverein, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
11Jason Dodge, Grazer Kunstverein, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
12Jason Dodge, Grazer Kunstverein, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
13Jason Dodge, Grazer Kunstverein, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
14Jason Dodge, Grazer Kunstverein, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Galleria Franco Noero, Torino. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com