Ansuman Biswas: Gnomon

Site-specific installation in the Stuart Hall Library

From January 2010

Iniva presents artist Ansuman Biswas's Gnomon, a site-specific installation in Rivington Place's Stuart Hall Library. Light boxes incorporate kinetic elements which echo the lines and angles of the building and bookshelves.

The work responds to the unique architecture of the building and sits nestled within the Library's window alcoves. Shadow forms subtly respond to the breath and heat of the readers who animate the space. The installation reflects the flow of information and energy within the building visible.

The artist has imagined the building as an observatory. Many of the first buildings were tools for understanding the cosmos; Stonehenge, Jantar Mantar and Macchu Picchu were designed to locate one-self in the heavens. They stood amongst constantly changing angles of light, caught in the intersection of the human and the more-than-human environment. Similarly, Rivington Place was designed in relation to the sun.

Ansuman Biswas was born in Calcutta and trained in the UK. He now has an international practice encompassing music, film, live art, installation, writing and theatre. He is interested in hybridity and interdisciplinary practice, often working between science, art and industry, or between music, dance and visual art.

On Thursday 4 February at 6:30pm Ansuman Biswas introduces the commission in the context of the architecture of Rivington Place. To book a place email bookings@rivingtonplace.org or call 0207 749 1240.

The commission is funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

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Notes for editors:
Ansuman Biswas has developed a dynamic practice which traverses, translates and transposes across various borders. He sits on the Board of Directors of Arts Catalyst, the science-art agency and in 2002-2003 he was artist-in-residence at the National Institute of Medical Research. He has an on-going research interest in consciousness studies, in particular the subjective emotional correlates of objective physiological states. He has been part of a pioneering study group on Cultural Utilisation of the International Space Station, for the European Space Agency. He has been involved in setting up similar cultural initiatives in conjunction with the Indian Space Research Organization and the National Institute of Advanced Studies, India. Biswas is an Associate Artist at Battersea Arts Centre, London. He is on the Advisory Faculty at Maine Summer Dramatic Institute, USA, and a member of the Kira Institute, a cross-disciplinary colloquium on Philosophy of Science at Amherst College, Massachusetts.

He has shown visual and time-based art at The Tate Modern, The South London Gallery, The Whitechapel Gallery, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, IIC New Delhi, Headlands Centre, San Francisco, and many other galleries and museums around the world. He also runs ongoing projects with diverse partners in Europe, USA, Africa and Asia. He has been artist-in-residence at HP Labs, Bangalore, at the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, China and at NICA (Networking Initiatives in Culture and the Arts) Yangon, Myanmar.

The Stuart Hall Library's collection of monographs, catalogues, periodicals, DVDs and other media focuses on contemporary art from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the work of British artists from different cultural backgrounds.

Exhibition: Progress Reports: art in an era of diversity
28 January - 13 March 2010
This multi-voiced exhibition explores interpretations of ‘cultural diversity', reflecting the times we live in and changes to the social and cultural landscape since Iniva was founded 15 years ago. Manick Govinda from Artsadmin, Sally Lai from the Chinese Arts Centre, filmmaker Campbell, filmmaker and scholar Karen Alexander and artist Zarina Bhimji have selected artists for this show.

Artists: Oreet Ashery and Larissa Sansour, Sanford Biggers, Michelle Citron, Julie Dash, Leah Gilliam, Amanda Holiday, Naomi Kashiwagi, Radhika Khimji, Tracey Moffatt, Harold Offeh, Hetain Patel, Lisa Reihana, John Sealey, Tejal Shah and Kara Walker.

Listings Information:
Venue: Stuart Hall Library, Rivington Place, London, EC2A 3BA
Exhibition: Ansuman Biswas: Gnomon
Dates: from January 2010
Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday: 10am - 5pm
Please note the exhibition is only open during Library opening hours
Admission: Free
Nearest tubes: Old Street & Liverpool Street
Rivington Place is fully accessible in all public areas
For parking & wheelchair facilities or further information
about Rivington Place +44 (0)20 7749 1240, info@rivingtonplace.org, http://www.rivingtonplace.org/

Further information
For high resolution images and further press information please contact:

Clare Roebuck croebuck@iniva.org tel 020 7749 1247
Head of Communications

Sheena Balkwill sbalkwill@iniva.org tel: 0207 749 1246
Press and Marketing Coordinator

About Iniva
Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) engages with new ideas and emerging debates in the contemporary visual arts, reflecting in particular the cultural diversity of contemporary society. We work with artists, curators, creative producers, writers and the public to explore the vitality of visual culture. (www.iniva.org). Iniva is supported by Arts Council England.

Opened in 2007, Rivington Place is Iniva and Autograph ABP's contemporary visual arts space and the UK's first permanent public space dedicated to culturally-diverse visual arts and photography. The building has been realised with thanks to funding from the Arts Council England Lottery Capital 2 Programme and Barclays, the Rivington Place founding Corporate Partner. Barclays £1.1m contribution is part of a much wider programme of community support, which last year totalled over £52.4 million - one of the most substantial in the UK.

The Rivington Place project also gives thanks to London Development Agency, City Fringe Partnership, European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Hackney Council and The City Bridge Trust for their support as well as The Foyle Foundation and the Garfield Weston Foundation. Thanks also to Brodksy Centre and Clifford Chance for their in-kind support. (http://www.rivingtonplace.org/)