John Wood was born in 1969 in Hong Kong and Paul Harrison in 1966, in Wolverhampton, England. They live and work in Bristol. They met in 1989, while studying at the Bath College of Higher Education, and they’ve been working together since 1993. Without attaching themselves to a specific medium, the duo’s practice reveals a central concern: “To illustrate the triumphs and tribulations of the making of art and having a life”. In this existential task, where the creative act continuously interrogates itself, humour is a paramount tool. If in the videos and performances, interpreted by the artists, we can see absurd actions that involve the interaction of the subject with objects within white and empty spaces, in the installations, sculptures, paintings and drawings, we are confronted with paradoxes, dysfunctionalities or unusual solutions that deactivate any logical pretension. The following solo exhibitions stand out; Selected Works, MIT Boston / MOMA, New York, 2004; Some Words, Some More Words, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 2009; No Beginning No Middle No End, Kunstmuseum, Thun, 2010; Answers to Questions, University of California Santa Monica / H&R Block Artspace, Kansas, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston / Frist Center, Nashville, 2010-12; As logical as possible, Kunstverein Arsnberg, 2017 and Dark Side, Marc Fassiaty Video Foundation, Paris, 2019. Group exhibitions include Gwangiu Biennial, 2002; Irreducicle, CCA Wattis Institute, California, 2005; Le Mouvement des Images, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2006; Slapstick, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2013; On Struggling to Remain Present When You Want to Disappear, OCAT, Xangai, 2018 and Mere Construction, Kanal-Centre Pompidou, Brussels, 2019. To be noted also the screenings presented at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2002; Tate Britain, 2003; International Film Festival, La Rochelle, 2004; MOCA, Los Angeles, 2006; Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, 2012, among others. The duo’s work is represented in various institutional collections such as Albertina Museum, Vienna; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Kadist Foundation, Paris; MOMA, New York; MUDAM, Luxembourg and Tate, London.

SN, November 2020

Jaime Isidoro

Artworks

Sem título [Untitled]s.d.

Cristina Iglesias

John John Wood and Paul Harrison