18 Sep 2009

Iniva at Rivington Place presents NS Harsha: Nations & Chen Chieh-jen: Factory

NS Harsha: Nations
18 September – 21 November 2009

Nations is a grand-scale installation by Indian artist NS Harsha, exhibited for the first time in Europe at Rivington Place. It questions international politics and globalisation combining serious discussion with visual wit. 192 sewing machines are overlaid with hand painted calico flags signifying the countries that make up the United Nations.

NS Harsha is an artist known for his sensitivity to the human condition, drawing on details of cultural traditions in India and subjects which are part of all our lives. He focuses on the whimsical as well as the tragic aspects of life.

'This work took shape after my visit to a local small scale textile factory in which I personally experienced the realities of 'human labour'. Hierarchies and exploitation are part of today's global economic order. Nations engages with these socio-political complexities and cultural entanglements.' NS Harsha

NS Harsha has exhibited internationally, Nations is his most ambitious installation to date and was shown to critical acclaim at the Sharjah Biennial earlier in 2009. NS Harsha lives and works in Mysore, India. He was the recipient of the 3rd Artes Mundi Prize awarded in 2008 and worked with Iniva in 2000. Picking Through the Rubble, an exhibition by NS Harsha, is showing at Victoria Miro Gallery from 10 October – 14 November 2009.

Chen Chieh-jen: Factory
18 September – 21 November 2009

Taiwanese artist Chen Chieh-Jen's haunting film Factory is shown for the first time in London. Focusing on a group of textile workers, it is set within the context of manufacturing moving abroad in search of cheaper labour. In 2003 the artist invited workers to return to the Lien Fu garment factory which had been closed down 7 years earlier. The unscrupulous owners were investigated for refusing to play retirement pensions and severance.

In the mid 20th-century Taiwan's manufacturing industry was booming as the Western world outsourced production. Factories sprung up all over the country and workers were brought in to live in dormitories. Shots of women textile workers moving around the building are mixed with fragmentary images of their protests, as well as footage produced by the government in the 1960s to promote the new found prosperity.


Iniva
Iniva engages with new ideas and emerging debates in the contemporary visual arts, reflecting in particular the cultural diversity of contemporary society. Iniva works with artists, curators, creative producers, writers and the public to explore the vitality of visual culture.

Rivington Place
This groundbreaking contemporary visual arts venue in Shoreditch, East London was designed by leading architect David Adjaye. The award-winning building opened in 2007 and is home to Iniva and Autograph ABP who programme within the building, it includes gallery and education spaces, Library, and a café.