*prost: common, everyday, mundane, but within which lies the divine
Vigo Gallery is delighted to present Prost*, a solo exhibition by British artist Henry Krokatsis. This year-long installation transforms the interior space of Wellington Arch, creating a functional yet subversive replacement for the existing floor.
Although based on the Waterloo Gallery’s intricate border parquet pattern in Wellington’s former residence across the road in Apsley House, in place of fine hardwoods, Krokatsis’ remake uses two tonnes of discarded material. Rejected wooden off-cuts, abandoned wardrobes and broken kitchen units foraged from skips, have been dismantled and painstakingly cut by hand into 4,400 pieces, chamfered and laid individually.
In addition to referencing Carl Andre's minimalist floor works and the schizophrenic architecture of Karl Junker, Krokatsis’ off-kilter creation also consciously resonates with Joseph Boehm’s statue of Wellington (located next to the arch), made from abandoned French cannons, melted down and recast.
Recycling and remaking both material and its history, he legitimises the overlooked, ushering it covertly into the institution, Krokatsis’ installation ‘oscillates between the destitute and the divine’ testing our assumptions about function, value and status.
This marriage of make-do opportunism and highly developed craft skill is central also to the series of seemingly simple films shown alongside the floor. Made in collaboration with elite physical performers including Dana Fouras, ex-principle dancer for the Royal Ballet, Tatyana Ozhiganova, the renowned Moscow State Circus aerialist, and Harris Bell, current rising star of the Royal Ballet, each ‘actor’ wears a pair of socks, embroidered with a pair of words.
On his studio wall Krokatsis keeps an evolving list of words, pairs of corresponding forces like:
Chaos / Order
Intuition / Superstition
Nihilism / Faith
Truth / Illusion
These are metaphysical forces, hidden determinants that have a powerful influence, whether we are conscious of them or not. The sway of Chaos over Order in your life for example, will have a profound effect on you whether you actively contemplate it or not.
'I've taken these words and embroidered them onto socks. It’s a way to remind myself that these ideas aren't just esoteric fancies we might consider in a philosophical moment, to remember that they're embedded in the everyday, in the fabric of the mundane and that the extraordinary exists within the ordinary.
What changes when we properly pay attention to this idea, when we look at how these contestable, ethereal forces are integrated into our ordinary lives? What happens if we consciously change the balance in our lives between say Chaos and Order or Nihilism and Faith? We might invite more Chaos in as a cure for boredom perhaps or more Order to feel safe, or we may come to terms with the idea that they can't exist without each other.
Ostensibly I've made a functional, common object with a pair of words embroidered on it, but potentially it's a way to broaden our metaphysical peripheral vision.
I asked the performers to create a movement wearing them, based on their feet, ankles and calves, as simple or complex as they like. Some asked me to propose the movement and film it. Others wanted to collaborate and some took total control themselves.
I wanted a way of making something collectively that invigorates the power that lies in the simplest things, to encourage us to recognise what we see and use everyday which we take for granted, to look from another angle shifted by only a few degrees, which can hold the esoteric, the divine.’ - Henry Krokatsis, 2024.
Henry Krokatsis (b.1965 London) lives and works in London utilising a wide range of materials, from found wood to smoke, used votive candles and old discarded mirrors. He has an MA from the Royal College of Art, London. Selected solo exhibitions include House of the Indifferent Fanatic, Borders Sculpture Park, Berwickshire (2019); Saunakabin, Jerwood Gallery, Hastings, Sussex (2018); Household Faith, Vigo Gallery, London (2018); Henry Krokatsis with Vilhelm Hammersøi, Ordrupgaard Museum (2015); Origin of the Black Rainbow, Galeria Leme, Sao Paulo (2013); Part Time Paradise, David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen (2012) Themes and Variations, Guggenheim Venice (2011). Krokatsis is represented in the collections of the Ordrupgaard Museum, Denmark; David Roberts Art Foundation, London; New Art Gallery Walsall and the UK Government Art Collection.
