LONDON.- This exhibition will be the first survey of
Marcus Coates’ work in a public gallery in the UK and will include early film
pieces, sculpture, sound, costumes and photographs as well as new work.
Coates often assumes the identity of an animal, such as a fox, goshawk or stoat,
by simulating its appearance, enacting its habits and appropriating its
language. In the film, ‘Stoat’, (1999), for example, Coates totters around on
ramshackle platforms, learning to recreate the animal’s bounding movements; in
‘Goshawk’, (1999), a telephoto lens captures the artist as a rare bird perched
precariously at the top of a tree; while in ‘Finfolk’, (2003), the artist
emerges from the North Sea spluttering a new dialect, as spoken by seals.
The show will run from January 15 through April 4, 2010.