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Martin Sexton
Video
31st August - 25th September, 2011  

An artist of futiques; collectible works of the future, that are seemingly written in the past and witnessed and read in the present, Martin Sexton extends his works of art into whole narratives and parallel worlds. The artist continues his migration through time within the Poetry Library, exhibiting a film piece and an artist’s book that follow his practice of colliding mythology and reality, rendering the borders between fact and fiction irrelevant.

Poem of Poems is a text based film piece that defines the individual’s notion of love, its myths and modernity. Against a background of white noise, instant messages are speed fuelled through a stream of consciousness and accompanied by a soundtrack composed by ex-member of the KLF, James Cauty. Opening in the Garden of Eden, Sexton leads us through a mythology of popular culture culminating in his definition of the archetype of technology and the Internet; the Binarius – the symbol of the twin star found in both Greek mythology and cosmology, though familiar to us as the fabric text of modernity - binary code.

The artists’ book Everything is Fire Love, Even when its Ice Love continues the collision of time and reality, where William Blake, John Milton and Napoleon are remembered alongside mythical characters such as Sampson and Bellorphon. Sexton commemorates these figures through his ice poems; temporary sculptures installed in the burial locations on the anniversaries of the poets' birth. The documentation of these site specific and time related installations is layered between sheets of glass, preserving the ethereal quality of Sexton’s sculptures.

Martin Sexton has exhibited widely in the UK including in exhibitions such as The Age of the Marvellous and Vanitas: The Transience of Earthly Pleasures at AVA, London (2010), The House of The Noble Man at Boswall House, London (2010) as well as abroad, in spaces such as Assab One in Milan and the Benaki and Hydra Museums in Greece.

As part of the Southbank Centre's Festival of Britain celebrations, Art on Poetry is a dedicated season of artists' books curated by KALEID editions at the Saison Poetry Library, located on level 5 of London's Royal Festival Hall.

Tuesday to Sunday, 11am - 8pm.

Open: Tuesday to Sunday, 11am - 8pm.

Saison Poetry Library
Level 5
Royal Festival Hall
London SE1 8XX

Phone: 020 7921 0943 / 020 7921 0664

Underground stations: Waterloo & Embankment
Railway stations: Waterloo, Waterloo East & Charing Cross

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