Angel­i­ca Mesiti
In the Round

Tal­bot Rice Gallery presents the first major exhi­bi­tion in the UK of Angel­i­ca Mesiti. 

In the Round builds upon her prac­tice, to take us on a dynam­ic jour­ney that extends through his­tor­i­cal paint­ing, ancient musi­cal nota­tion, geo­log­i­cal spec­i­mens and musi­cal instru­ments. Mesi­ti con­sis­tent­ly returns to com­mu­ni­ca­tion and trans­la­tion in her sound, per­for­mance and video instal­la­tions, reflect­ing the strug­gle of com­mu­ni­ties to co-exist. Through her selec­tion of the University’s col­lec­tions, she has delved into nature and deep time, as well as ideas of cycles, res­o­nances and rota­tion. Tak­ing this unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­bine present con­cerns with his­tor­i­cal research, Mesi­ti allows her art­works to echo through ancient objects and to mate­ri­alise in new works made for this expan­sive exhibition.

Anchor­ing this exhi­bi­tion are the instal­la­tions Over the Air and Under­ground (com­mis­sioned by the Busan Bien­ni­al in 2020), ASSEM­BLY (com­mis­sioned by the Aus­tralian Pavil­ion of the Venice Bien­nale in 2019), and Cit­i­zens Band (com­mis­sioned by ACCA in 2012). These three sub­stan­tial works offer win­dows onto dif­fer­ent ele­ments of Mesiti’s prac­tice: from the com­mu­ni­ca­tion of trees and the vision of bees; to the occu­pa­tion and per­for­mance of resis­tance in the halls of democ­ra­cy; to the migra­tion of peo­ple, cus­toms and music. Her art­works mine his­to­ries and per­form mes­sages, with sound, vocal­i­sa­tion and per­cus­sion run­ning through­out the exhibition. 

Along­side over 50 items select­ed for dis­play, she has also pro­duced three new works in response to these col­lec­tions: a choral record­ing of a sev­en­teenth-cen­tu­ry score The Bees Madri­gal; a pho­to­graph­ic work bring­ing togeth­er a six­teenth-cen­tu­ry Sea Atlas and a mar­ble land­scape, and a sculp­tur­al work of etched granite.

Unlock­ing the poten­tial of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Edin­burgh’s col­lec­tions to catal­yse cre­ative prac­tice, In the Round is an evoca­tive exhi­bi­tion, where build­ings, instru­ments, plants and col­lec­tives of peo­ple com­mu­ni­cate in inge­nious ways, and col­lec­tions are explored through the lens of an excep­tion­al con­tem­po­rary artist.

Curat­ed by Angel­i­ca Mesi­ti and Tes­sa Gib­lin, Direc­tor of Tal­bot Rice Gallery