“Be able to keep two completely contradictory ideas alive and well inside of your heart and head at all times. If it doesn’t drive you crazy, it will make you strong.” Bruce Springsteen, keynote speech SXSW

The Zabludowicz Collection is delighted to announce a solo exhibition of new work by UK-based artist Andy Holden. The culmination of an 18-month collaboration with the Collection, the exhibition is Holden’s most ambitious project to date, and will explore the history and legacy of MI!MS (Maximum Irony! Maximum Sincerity), an art movement founded in 2003 by Holden and a group of friends in their hometown of Bedford before any of them had undertaken any formal art training.

Taking over the entirety of the Zabludowicz Collection’s London exhibition space, Towards a Unified Theory of MI!MS will feature a single vast three-storey sculpture, containing life-size replicas of environments that were important in the formation of the movement. These rooms will be filled with hundreds of works in different media, including original artworks made by the MI!MS members, new works based on unrealised ideas of the group, a series of films and sound works produced via interviews with those involved in the movement, and dramatic reconstructions of key moments of the movement’s history played by teenagers from Bedford. The exhibition’s soundtrack is composed from the original music of MI!MS re-arranged for and performed by a children’s orchestra and choir.

The challenge of representing collective memory is a central concern of the project, alongside questions surrounding the influence of history and nostalgia on our understanding of the past, as well as the way it structures the present. The show will attempt to construct an idiosyncratic archeology of MI!MS through a systematic exploration of the group’s adolescent debate about the relationship between irony and sincerity in art production and the grand gesture of writing and signing a manifesto. The work attempts to be both about MI!MS as well as a new work of MI!MS as prescribed by the manifesto.

The MI!MS manifesto declares: “We live in an age of irony in mourning for sincerity! We live in an age of irony because of the sins of sincerity! Let us not be ironic about our sincerity, let us be sincere about our irony. We should not be cynical about the emotions in our work – we are simply cynical about the means we have to express that emotion… Let us face the world with a smile on our face and a tear in our eye: Maximum Irony! Maximum Sincerity.”

Holden’s diverse practice frequently addresses the ground between personal and collective mythologies, and embodies the artist’s fascination with connections between objects, relationships and narratives. He explores how we establish our place in the world and its history through the objects and people we surround ourselves with. Whether it is the music he plays with his band The Grubby Mitts, lectures with his ornithologist father or a 1:100,000 scale knitted replica of a small rock fragment from the Great Pyramid of Giza, Holden’s work often has a personal backstory.

This is Holden’s most ambitious project to date and will include collaborations with the other founding members of MI!MS: John Blamey, Roger Illingworth, James MacDowell and Johnny Parry. An artist’s book will be produced, containing original MI!MS material, commissioned contributions, as well as a number of limited and unlimited artists editions. Performances and events will take place throughout the exhibition bringing the energy and legacy of the MI!MS movement to life for a contemporary audience.

Maximum Irony! Maximum Sincerity, 1999–2003: Towards a Unified Theory of MI!MS, the 2013 Zabludowicz Collection Annual Commission, is realised in partnership with Spike Island, Bristol, and supported by Bedford Creative Arts and Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston University. The exhibition will tour to Spike Island in Spring 2014.

Zabludowicz Collection
176 Prince of Wales Road
London NW5 3PT United Kingdom
Ph. +44 (0)20 74288940
info@zabludowiczcollection.com
www.zabludowiczcollection.com

Opening hours
Thursday - Sunday
From 12pm to 6pm or by appointment

Related images

  1. Andy Holden, Pyramid Piece, 2008-10, Knitted yarns, foam, steel knitted yarns, foam, steel, Courtesy the artist and Zabludowicz Collection
  2. Andy Holden, Maximum Irony, Maximum Sincerity: 1999-2003, Towards a Unified Theory of MI!MS (production image), 2013, Courtesy Andy Holden
  3. Andy Holden, The Naturist (Unofficial Sculpture for the Festival of Britain), Jaywick, Essex, 2011, Courtesy Andy Holden
  4. Andy Holden, Alex as Andy, Towards a Unified Theory of MI!MS (Work in Progress), 2013, Courtesy Andy Holden
  5. Andy Holden, MI!MS logo, 2013, Courtesy Andy Holden
  6. Andy Holden, Archie and Alex as Pups and Andy, Towards a Unified Theory of MI!MS (Work in Progress), 2013, Courtesy Andy Holden