Once Upon A Time

Candela Pan | Manfred Peckl | Mona Pourebrahim | Ronan Porter | Steven Dickie | Marianne Walker | Jesse Farber | Jasmine Justice

1.12.-10.12.2023

Opening: Friday, December 1, 6-10 pm

“Once Upon A Time sets the scene for a story, a story from long, long ago..//GLITCH..In a galaxy far, far away an alien civilisation struggles with its own belief system and prays to have a..//GLITCH..The year is 2023 and in certain corners of Europe artists are busy making strange, wonderful things alongside having a magical, knowing relationship with their electronic devices..//GLITCH..In an ancient land, sitting under an amazing evening sky, a child touches a worn stone figure and asks the question “ I can feel it, can’t I ?”..//GLITCH..”
Darren O’Brien

Bringing together a sense of the ancient, of the present and of the future “Once Upon A Time” assembles 8 international artists based in Berlin and London. This exhibition is the 4th project curated between HilbertRaum and ASC Gallery and studios in London. Firstly there was “A Faint Ground” and then “A Naked Truth” at HilbertRaum / Berlin and then “We Were Made in the Dark” at ASC Gallery /London. It brings together Berlin based artists and ASC studio artists in London and looks to link and showcase artists in authentic and exciting exhibitions.

Marianne Walker makes three dimensional drawings that are heavily informed by the material of the past. She creates hybrid objects that hover between pencil and ink drawings and the sculptural form. Steven Dickie uses sculpture and video to describe a kind of “Hinterland” that often seeks to connect our digital screen based culture to pre-history. Yet a type of past can be a loop to a future and in Ronan Porter’s large scale paintings this can be the case. They have written their own science fiction novel titled “Ragner” and often uses characters, scenes or language from it to populate their work.

Candela Pan is a multidisciplinary artist and her recent sequence of work titled “ I know very little and about life almost nothing” is taken from the poem by Spanish poet Alberta Chessa. Jesse Farber creates his own type of otherworldliness that is set in its own place and time. This is visible in his printed and sculptural works but also in his sound work that is presented on “RNL”. Jasmine Justice’s alluring paintings seem to both create and break down codes. They meander in groups both hard and soft, often with sculptural attachments. Mona Pourebrahim creates atmospheric paintings and photographs that are often dark and brooding and somewhat timeless. Manfred Peckl works across many artistic platforms including painting, sculpture, performance and installation. In his recent exhibition “Mantras” he presented various life size forms resembling stick drawn families. His paintings such as “Double Penetration” from 2016 also create its own particular alternative world.