Richard Taylor
Epigone

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PREVIEW
Friday 25th October | 7:30pm - 9:30pm

  • Saturday 26th October 2013 | 2pm – 4pm
    Sunday 27th October 2013 | 2pm – 4pm
    Saturday 2nd November 2013 | 2pm – 4pm
    Sunday 3rd November 2013 | 2pm – 4pm

  • Glasgow-based artist and writer Richard Taylor (b. Sheffield, UK, 1985) uses writing and voice to steer connections between bodily intimacies, objects, architectures, landscapes and histories. A combination of sound design, sculpture, slide photography, video and performance and are then used to developed narrative-orientated environments, for studying the relationships and communities people sustain or leave behind. 

    Selected exhibitions and performances include ‘Front Horse’, an evening of performance and poetry, with Nottingham University’s School of English (2017); ‘Anonymiser Particular’, a solo exhibition at Alex Hetherington’s No. 35/elongated domestic gallery space/The men and women are referred to in the text as, Bannockburn, Scotland (2017); ‘In Parting Glass’, a collaborative exhibition and series of performances with choreographer Riccardo Buscarini, Summerhall, Edinburgh (2016); ‘enter dust free tomb’, a suite of performances at the Glasgow School of Art Archives & Collections, The Whiskey Bond, Glasgow (2015); '12-hour Studio Jamming Symposium', performances at Cooper Gallery, Dundee (2014); 'Epigone', a solo exhibition at Basement Arts Project, Leeds (2013).

    Richard studied with free-party-goers at Leeds University (2004-2007) and moved to Scotland in 2009. He has pursued research during residencies with AWA Gallery, Amsterdam (2012); Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh, and Mexico Project Space, Leeds (2013); Cooper Gallery, Dundee (2014); Edinburgh College of Art and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop (2015); Hospitalfield, Arbroath; Market Gallery, Glasgow (both 2017). He completed an MFA at Glasgow School of Art in 2017.

epigone
Pronunciation: /ˈɛpɪgəʊn/
noun(plural epigones or epigoni /ɪˈpɪgənʌɪ, ɛ-/)

a less distinguished follower or imitator of someone, especially an artist or philosopher
Oxford English Dictionary

Through drawing, sculpture, film and 35mm projection this exhibition looks to explore the role of the epigone (an impersonator or apprentice) as each new piece is realised. Four drawings made at the beginning of the project act as proposals for four artworks. The drawings enclose the signature of the artist, offering a framework for how to follow suit. But the corresponding artworks are less defined in terms of their authorship.

As the apprentice would dutifully impersonate what is taught he becomes the epigone in failing to arrive at perfection. By accepting this misfortune the work looks closer at how, after an idea reveals itself, its journey as a concept is one where many a hand can authorise fuller definition. This frames the production of the work within a wider discussion of what constitutes art making. Whether it is a craft honed in solitude, a process involving more than one person, an experience intimately shared between two people, or a setup entirely reliant on environment.

Taylor’s recent work has looked at how the artist’s role in making becomes a morphing between personas, where new characters are formed in order to take control over the absurd completion or destruction of objects. The concept of epigone also looks at how the artist can be himself in creating an idea, as well as the assistant who sees it through to an end – however badly or successfully.