Red Leaves
Ellie de Verdier
12 September – 26 September 2015
Exhibition Opening: Friday 11 September 2015, 6 – 9pm
A cold breeze shuddered the trees in the park, at a distance the town square clock struck midnight in a horror style.
A narrow path led down, through from the old pitch lined by straight walls of foliage.
Silk gloved hands deep in my starched greatcoat’s pockets, each step just long enough to not force a violent crease and buckle.
Early autumn leaves covered the gravel in tones of grey, rustling softly.
Through the shrubs a flicker of light turned the top of my spine sharply cold.
By the memorial fountain the path spread out into an airy oval, rows of trees replaced by strictly hewn geometrical shapes, each just past mansized.
Creepy slow bubbles appeared on the surface of a puddle.
Patches of grass in sandy mud turned to cobblestone as I turned left into a sidestreet, high walls hid but a thin line of sky, overcast.
The strike of one, even more ghastly than the last, echoed through the alley.
As it passed, the want of a follow-up made the clacking of my shoes unbearably present. In a doorway I could make out a shadowy shape. I waited a while watching from the curb, it was moving but wouldn’t wake up and was not alive
The air carried the rancid and sweet remnants of something burning.
There was a crack in the fence to the storage center housed in the old department store. Well inside the breeze stagnated, a thick layer of dust covered the curved walnut bannisters and softened the transition between pillars and floor.
In some places the beams of the ceiling were bulging under the weight of stacked office furniture above.
Clogged up airconditioning vents vibrated and seemed to give off an inaudible sound.
I felt quite weakened and with the last drops of blood available in my fingers I inscribed a Bill for Revision of the Rule of Succession onto the walls:
Amendments to the present act of Succession, it is my Will that the Monarchy remains in most crucial aspects unaltered and in its present State, the only change I propose is that the Crown be passed on by Regicide.
Should the claimant by accident cause injury to any other persons or damage to property in the endeavour, all present Laws would be applicable.
Disclaimer; this is a work of fiction, any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental, sentiments expressed in the text in no way represent the views of the gallery or the artist.
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Ellie de Verdier (born in Sweden, lives and works in Germany), is a recent graduate of Contemporary Photography and Art at the Universität der Künste Berlin (2009-2015) where she was a student of Josephine Pryde. She was a guest attendee at the class of Nicholas Mauss at HFBK Hamburg (2012) and Institut für Kunst im Kontext, UdK, Berlin (2010-2014). Solo exhibitions include CLAMS, Muda Mura Muri, Zürich (2014); Step Away, Heit, Berlin (2014); WHATS WRONG SON, Dold Projects, St Georgen (2013). Recent group shows include DM, SPACE, London (2015); Dinner for One, The Duck, Berlin (2014); I follow I/11 minutes, M J Gallery, Geneva (2014); Unlock the Gates, JTT, New York (2014); Das Arrangement, Museum für Fotografie, Berlin (2014); The Libidinal Net in Contemporary Photography, Heit, Berlin (2013). The artist has collaborated on numerous projects including S.O.A.P.Y III, with Max Brand, Genoveva Filipovic, Veit Laurent Kurz, Laura Langer and Julien Nguyen, What Pipeline, Detroit (2014); I feel extreme, man, with Felix Riemann, The Duck, Berlin (2014); Physical Exhaustion Increases Brain Glycogen Metabolism, with Georgie Nettel, Gili Tal and New Ultra Group, ANDOR, London (2013).
