METASTASIS – 28th of March until 3rd of April

METASTASIS is a powerful and unique performing arts event by MAGDALENA SURANYI.

A one-week long ongoing project open to the public 24/7, where spectators will have the opportunity to watch LIVE artwork in SOHO. Hosted by one of London’s busiest and liveliest venues, the Window Gallery glares directly at the hundreds of commuters that walk Charing Cross Road every day.

Magdalena will labour inside The Window Gallery’s street displays between 6 – 8 hours a day, and will have to improvise a site-specific installation using recycled paintings. Her imagery is Violent, overtly Sexual and shamelessly Obsessive.

Viewers will have no choice but to witness the creative process of her work from beginning to end as she unravels a surprising piece that changes continuously, only to grow and overlap impulsively in front of your eyes.

DATE: 28th of March until 3rd of April- Performances from 12pm to 8:30pm. Open 24/7

VENUE: The Window Gallery at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design -107-109 Charing Cross Road, Soho, WC2.

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PROPOSAL

The week-long ongoing project is structured to take place almost entirely in one of the two window displays at the Window Gallery of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design while on the second space there will be an untouched piece hanging, waiting to be processed.

The performance starts with a block of canvas, similar in size as a block of hay and tied with string in the same way. As the performer unwraps the block inside the virgin space it will reveal six large-scale paintings all displaying human bodies or anthropomorphic beings, all of them composed by hundreds of small pieces of canvas stuck together like a quilt. They are residue, garbage, and the only thing that will make them indispensable is the possibility of them becoming something else .The glue is brittle enough to tear off the canvas squares very easily and the performer will have to tear the paintings piece by piece in order to mix the images and create a new collage according to the new space.

A stool, staple gun, a pair of scissors, watered down PVA Glue, Tempera and/or Acrylic paint mixed with Latex accompanied by their respective brushes will be on display and used to assist the construction of the collage. All of this should happen in front of the public eye. On one side, there will be a painting in its original shape and it will hang there till it becomes useful, once the piece is taken out, another will take its place in the waiting game until there is only a fragment of its original glory left.

The possibilities “seem” endless: Bodies that used to be complete will be torn apart and pieced back together turning into arachno-mutant humanoids similar to bacterial life-forms found under the microscope (however, they will be life-sized, crammed on top of each other inside this small window display). Mutants that started out as such will have their multiple limbs turned into spare parts for the making of perhapsa conventional figurative shape, i.e. The Human Body, although it will appear contorted and awkward.I want to establish a rythm that will keep on going regardless of the status of the piece exclusively to emphasize the constant sense of transmutation, the fluidity of change. This means that if space happens to run out, there will either be overlapping imagery or whole sections could be cut out to afford space for the next figure.

Once again, most of the performance will take place in one space, while the other hangs idle work, immobile and vulnerable to sporadic visits that have only one thing in common: Kidnap, Hanging and Dismembering. Nonetheless, its counterpart will be thriving in activity filled with unrestrained movements all of which are responsible for the Creation of newfangled organic compositions

ARTIST PROFILE Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Magdalena Suranyi is an artist currently based in London where she completed a degree in Fine Arts at Chelsea College of Art and Design. Her persisted choice in medium has been figurative large-scaled drawings and paintings, creating a natural link between her political tendencies and the development of murals or (ideally) public art.
She encourages a deliberate “excess,” the uncomfortable use and abuse of socially charged death imagery. Her concern with human rights, gender roles and archtypical imagery that accost deep-seated stereotypes and learned behaviors has been described as consistent and profound.
These confrontational visuals work on a number of levels as she hopes to strike a balance between topical, specific historical references and a kind of inconclusive universality. The nature of the compositions are defined and largely controlled by her merged interests in history, psychology as well as sociological studies.

E-MAIL: magdasuranyi@gmail.com
Facebook Group: METASTASIS PERFROMANCE @ THE WINDOW GALLERY