18 Feb 2010

Horsecross presents Joana Bastos at Threshold artspace, Perth

Since 2007, Joana Bastos has challenged the Portuguese art scene with a series of provocative performances that explore the conventions of late-capitalist labor relations. The artist assumes the ordinary occupations of female workers—from blue-collar professionals to those in the service sector—and executes the routine duties of a given job description in situ. Merging the radical legacy of feminist art and the political practices of institutional critique, Bastos smartly blurs boundaries between the public and the private, fiction and reality, and aesthetics and ethnography.' Miguel Amado In Artforum: Critics´ Picks, Issue December 2009

For her solo exhibition No Money, No Honey at Perth's Threshold artspace – her first in the UK – Bastos presents four new and recent works from the last three years in which the artist operates within performative platforms as an entertainer, cleaner, hostess and a babysitter. True to her preferred media of choice – women's jobs – Bastos recreates these stereotypes as staged performances, as ironic 'ready-mades' questioning the agency and role of the artist in our globalised (art) world. The works also echo the notion of 'carnivalesque gaiety' with which anyone feels entitled to comment on areas outside of their expertise in the society of the spectacle as asserted by theorist Guy Debord. All new commissions and acquisitions are showing at the different 'project rooms' of the artspace including the ThresholdWave, Stage and Flush areas, as well as the artspace dedicated YouTube Channel.


FREE EXHIBITION EVENTS AND RESOURCES
Exhibition Guide | Free and downloadable | www.horsecross.co.uk/about/threshold-artspace/threshold-current/

Artist's Talk | Off-site at Glasgow School of Art | 167 Renfrew Street | Glasgow G3 6RQ | date to be confirmed

Curator's Guided Tours | By prior arrangement through e-mailing inedkova@horsecross.co.uk

Read More | Horsecross journal for critical writing | Forthcoming issue on Joana Bastos with a newly commissioned essay by Jenny Brownrigg

CREDITS
No Money, No Honey | Joana Bastos – the third in a five-part ten month series of commisions, exhibitions, acquisitions and events Portuguese Waves. Co-curated by Iliyana Nedkova and Filipa Oliveira. Produced by the artist, curators and Horsecross for Threshold artspace in partnership with 55degrees, Glasgow. Supported by the Calouste Gulbenkain Foundation, Instituto Camões Portugal of Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Scottish Arts Council.

ABOUT
Joana Bastos (born Lisbon, 1979 where she lives and works) graduated with a MFA Degree from Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, 2008 and a BA Hons Degree in Painting from University of Fine Arts, Lisbon, 2004. Her latest solo shows include: Ask me, Kusnthalle Lissabon, Lisbon, 2009; Black Journeys, Lagar do Azeite, Oeiras, 2006; 8&80, Instituto Camões, Luxembourg, 2006; Blindfolded, Way of Arts, Estoril, 2005; Ink, Lagar do Azeite, Oeiras, 2003. She also participated in a number of group shows including: Impossible Exchange, Frieze Projects, Frieze Art Fair, London, 2009; Entre o Céu e o Mar - Allgarve, CAV no Centro Cultural de Lagos, Lagos, 2009; Job Interviews, Battersea Art Centre, London, 2009; Propeller Island, South Kensington Artists Run Space, London, 2009; Employability, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, 2008; 7 Artistas ao 10 Mês, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 2008; Condensation I, Decima Gallery, London, 2008. Bastos' practice is represented by Vera Cortês Art Agency, Lisbon. Her exhibition No Money, No Honey at Threshold artspace, Perth, 2010 is her first solo presentation in the UK. www.joanabastos.com

Launched in September 2005, Threshold artspace is about positioning Perth and Scotland within the contemporary art world through curating, commissioning, producing, exhibiting, publishing and collecting bold contemporary art by Scottish and international artists. Pioneered and managed by Horscecross and core funded by the Scottish Arts Council and Perth and Kinross Council

Horsecross is an independent agency delivering cultural activities at Threshold artspace, Perth Concert Hall and Perth Theatre. Threshold artspace and Perth Concert Hall sit on the site of the original Horsecross – Perth's 17th century horse market. The name is synonymous with bustling regeneration activity in the heart of the city, which in 2010 celebrates the 800th anniversary of the granting of the Royal Burgh Charter to Perth by King William the Lion of Scotland in 1210.

ALSO, CURRENTLY ON VIEW AT THRESHOLD ARTSPACE
Instant Light. The Magic of Polaroid by Sheila Borthwick | until 20 March 2010
The first solo exhibition of this Glasgow-born and Perth-based artist. Curated by Iliyana Nedkova. Free and downloadable Exhibition Guide | www.horsecross.co.uk/about/threshold-artspace/threshold-current/

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Glenlandia by Susan Collins | Acres Wild by Marek Styczen | ongoing
The first collectable limited editions produced by Horsecross with proceeds supporting the exhibition programme. Limited edition - limited availability! Free and downloadable Collect+Support Guides | www.horsecross.co.uk/about/threshold-artspace/threshold-collect-support/

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Online works by Susan Collins, Vuk Cosic, Alec Finlay, Igor Krenz, Antonio Olaio, Susana Mendes Silva and Julita Wojcik | ongoing
Part of Horsecross collection of contemporary art showing on the Threshold artspace website | www.horsecross.co.uk/about/threshold-artspace/threshold-current/ and on the dedicated artspace YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/Thresholdartspace

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Read More | ongoing
Horsecross journal for critical writing and in-depth analysis of contemporary art. Latest issues feature contributing writers Jonathon Blackwood, Angela Dimitrakaki, Piotr Krajewski, November Paynter and Urszula Sniegowska. FREE to download | ISSN 1755-0866 | www.horsecross.co.uk/about/threshold-artspace/threshold-read-more/