Beyond the Black

Idris Khan 'Beyond the Black' Victoria Miro 20 September - 9 November 2013

Black on black, text upon text, over and over and over again. It cannot be read. In all of the works the text radiates out from a central point. Words and phrases can be picked out at the edges: knowledge of its essence, towards the end, when it began, so you are no further. But this does not facilitate understanding.

Meaning is not to be found on the surface or in the words themselves but in the process of making that has resulted in the work. Each strand of text was handprinted using red-black oil based paint. This act of repetition in time over time enables me to reflect on how I experience time and how I look back on time past as memory.

The text has been concentrated into an intense dark mass that appears to be a black nothing. And yet each strand of text was a thought (Khan's own writing) and an action (printing on paper/wall or aluminium). Time condenses my memories into my subconscious until they are reactivated by a trigger event. I remember whole chunks of time and activity as blocks but the exact details have gone.

upstairs and downstairs galleries

'Beyond the Black - Wall Drawing 2013 Idris Khan  (Gesso and Oil)

close up of the edge (above) and the centre (below)