This is the first UK exhibition of Eve Sussman and her ad hoc group of collaborators known as Rufus Corporation. The exhibition features a cinematic installation, photographs and two flat screen video works.

Part of the exhibition is a new three screen work Wintergarden, by Sussman and Simon Lee, it takes its point of departure the pre-fabricated ‘Khrushchyovka’ common in ex-Soviet cities. The video shows identical balconies on concrete apartment blocks built in the 1960s, slowly morphing into each other.

These open spaces, thoughtlessly created for living conditions in such a hostile climate, were blocked in by each resident. Creating a personal and quirky architecture that breaks with the plan of the original building. By blocking in this balcony space residents have created much needed extra living space for their families. We are aware of the residents’ presence in the films occasionally, twitching away at the curtains, perhaps conscious that they are being filmed, their private spaces being made public.

This work is a beautiful treatise on the passing of time, architecture, the blue print, exploring notions of freedom of expression, uniformity and the personal versus the common.

Eve Sussman/ Rufus Corporation
whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir
15 April – 14 May 2011
Haunch of Venison, 6 Burlington Gardens, London W1S 3ET
www.haunchofvenison.com

Heidi Boon

images:
1.Still taken from Wintergarden(2011) 3 channel video ©Eve Sussman | Simon Lee.
2.Still taken from How to tell the future from the past, v.2,(2009) 3 channel High Definition Video ©Eve Sussman | Simon Lee.