James Capper
b.1987, London, England
Website: jamescappersculpture.com
Image: ATLAS drawing, 2016.
ATLAS demonstrations
The artist will be demonstrating ATLAS as it carves its concrete plinths at the following times during the Festival dei Due Mondi:
Basilica di San Pietro
25 June: 11.00 – 12.00 and 17.00 – 18.00
26 June: 11.00 – 12.00
Piazza della Signoria
2 July: 11.00 – 12.00
3 July: 11.00 – 12.00 and 18.00 – 19.00
Rocca Albonorziana
9 July: 11.00 – 12.00 and 18.00 – 19.00
10 July: 11.00 – 12.00
TELESTEP film screenings
Screenings of Matthew Burdis’s film of TELESTEP, made in collaboration with Capper on residency with the Mahler & LeWitt Studios, Gubbio, June 2016.
Sala Pegasus, Piazza Bovio
26 June – 17.00
2 July – 17.00
10 July – 16.30
TELESTEP exhibition
A display with the sculpture TELESTEP
La Rocca Albonorziana
Exhibition runs 26 June – 10 July
Opening hours Monday: 09.30 – 13.15 and Tuesday – Sunday 09.30 – 18.45.
Artists: James Capper (sculpture), Matthew Burdis (film-maker); Curatorial team: Guy Robertson, Tommaso Faraci.
With support from the Hannah Barry Gallery, hannahbarry.com, and Jill Segal.
Supported by the Anna Mahler Association, James Capper brings two new sculptures to Spoleto – TELESTEP and ATLAS – for a residency with the Mahler & LeWitt Studios and an exhibition at the Festival dei Due Mondi.
Capper’s sculptures employ the materials of mechanical engineering and the techniques of industrial design to develop the possibilities of sculpture and performance. Beginning with concept drawings, Capper designs and builds automotive machines that gouge, mark and score the materials on which they are used. They are mobile sculptures and sculptural tools in performance.
TELESTEP, from Capper’s ‘mountaineering’ division of sculptures, is displayed in a disused shopspace in Via Arco di Druso. It will be shown alongside a film made on a mountain near Gubbio by Matthew Burdis during a residency with the Mahler & LeWitt Studios. The films shows TELESTEP being tested and demonstrated in the rugged Umbrian landscape.
ATLAS (commissioned by CGP London with support from The Henry Moore Foundation, Arts Council England and The London Borough of Southwark) is a mobile sculpture which operates from a concrete plinth. Over time it carves away at this plinth using specially designed mills. During the Festival dei Due Mondi, ATLAS will move between three concrete plinths placed at Basilica di San Pietro, Piazza della Signoria and the Rocca Albonorziana. At each site it will spend several days carving its plinth. The sculptured blocks will stay
in their locations for the duration of the Festival – either waiting for ATLAS to arrive, or showing the sculpted remains of the block on which ATLAS has already worked.
James Capper (b.1987, London, England) lives and works in London. He works with the Hannah Barry Gallery in London and Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York. Recent exhibitions include: The Imitation Game, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester (group, 2016); PROTOTYPES, CGP LONDON / Dilston Grove, Southwark Park, London (solo, 2015); SIX STEP, Rio dell’Orso, Venice, Italy (commission, 2015); MOUNTAINEER, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York (solo, 2015); Tools of the Trade, Hannah Barry Gallery, London (solo, 2015) and Divisions, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire (solo, 2013). He has been nominated for the ‘South Bank Sky Arts Awards’ and ‘The Times Breakthrough Award’ (both 2015) and won the Royal Society of British Sculptors Award (2011).
Matthew Burdis (b.1993, Newcastle, England) is a film-maker who lives and works in London. He was awarded the Landmark PLC Award for his degree show film Lindisfarne One One and runs the Chelsea Film Forum at the Chelsea College of Art & Design in London. He has recently written and directed a short film in partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London as part of the STOP PLAY RECORD program.
The Anna Mahler Association ran a residency programme in Spoleto from 2010 to 2014. It continues to explore and research the work of Anna Mahler, to support projects with its affiliated artists and is a vital contributor to the Mahler & LeWitt Studios residency program which was established as its successor in 2015.
