Ian Tweedy, OLYMPIA,WA, DVD, 04!50!!. PAL 4:3

Dabbeni Studio d´arte contemporanea Corso Pestalozzi 1 CH - 6900 Lugano Switzerland (city map) Send E-mail tel +41-(0)91-923 29 80 www.studiodabbeni.ch

IAN TWEEDY
Olympia, WA and a Portrait of a Picture

Opening: Thursday February 5 2009 -18.00

FEBRUARY 5-28 2009

Tuesday - Friday 09.30 - 12.00 / 14.30 - 18.30, Saturday 09.30 - 12.00 / 14.30 - 17.00 / Sunday/Monday Closed

A dark room, a large window covered by a black curtain. The central space of Studio Dabbeni will be set up to welcome the public who, as spectators, will be able to watch Olympia,WA, a video work made by the American artist Ian Tweedy (The artist was born in Hahn, Germany, on an American military base in 1982. He lives and works in Milan).

Through a sequence of images, we find ourselves catapulted into a savage, and seemingly hostile scene. Olympia, located near Seattle, is where the scenario takes place, a scene that opens with an image of trees with leafy branches moving in the wind. In this desolate land, we find ourselves in a scenario that is harsh in every way, and includes of group of young men aiming at targets resting on the ground, targets that hold within their substance, in the material they are made of, traces of earlier assaults by other young men. Ian Tweedy has photographed, with a camera, himself, his twin brother Britton and their other companions while, armed with illegally smuggled guns, they riddle the targets on the ground with shots. From these images the video has been made. Background music accompanies the sound of the shots.

The video work Olympia,WA, produced by Studio Dabbeni, reconstructs and retraces the images of this act, which, far from being offensive, should be interpreted as an expression of total freedom as experienced by Tweedy and the others. Nevertheless, the spectator may feel and perceive contrasting realities and dynamics, may grasp the violence in an act undertaken for the pure pleasure of experimentation; the public could also be led to believe that the shooting is practice for a violent act or a robbery. Without a doubt, with this video, Tweedy disconcerts the viewer, even if this was not his intention, and not what interests him. The targets, seen from close up, and then from afar, with the trees in the background, in a landscape that is almost lunar, are riddled with bullets, fall over and are picked up by the youths. They are neither hooligans nor criminals; they seem, almost paradoxically, closer to being heroes, in their extreme attempt to escape from the constraints that are necessarily written into the law.

In this video Ian Tweedy has participated in and documented the experience of going out and shooting that is common to many young people in the Unites States. One always shoots at something, at a target, and in this lies the thrill of the game, explains the artist, who nevertheless admits that after this experience, one can decide to not shoot again, or, inebriated by the sensation, repeat the episode.

What brings us back to the underlying layer, beneath what seems most obvious on the glaring surface of Tweedy!s works, are some images of war that are shown in the video, taken from his endless archive of old images, which much of his work revolves around.
In this video work Tweedy does not contradict himself, rather, he presents a challenge.
To seek freedom, even if it means breaking some solidified rules, to swim against the tide, is what he sought in going to Olympia.

With the presentation of this video, Studio Dabbeni invites the viewer to immerge himself, in this darkened room, into the strident and at the same time irresistibly fascinating succession of shots, and to follow, if only for a moment, the dream of these young heroes and their ineluctable desire for anarchy.

IAN TWEEDY - Olympia, WA and a Portrait of a Picture Press Release as pdf-File 331 KB