<nettime-ann> www.tank.tv : Alexander Heim : 1st - 14th February 2009

["Alice O'Reilly" <alice@tank.tv>]

.
tank.tv is pleased to present a selection of work from Alexander Heim including: Costa, Three Seasons, Untitled 
(Dog), Grand Walk and Matalan. 

"(Heim's) new film Costa (2008) tracks the daily activities of pigeons at a busy coffee shop, following one bird scratching 
about the feet of commuters, another skittering across a marble floor and a third bracing itself against the wind in a 
concrete ledge, solemn as an eagle. With painstaking care they hunt for the scraps between glinting metal chairs, clamber 
up gigantic steps and outwit oblivious shows. The look faintly ludicrous but supremely resourceful. The birds perspective 
translates familiar surrounding into foreign territory; a station concourse gleams like an immense frozen lake, its menacing 
cashpoint the mouth to hell; the complicated shadow of a railing is not a reminder of an environment shaped by caring 
human hands but a welcome rush-hour haven. In a city planned with no thought of pigeons as its users, these benighted 
tacticians are transcendent. (..) 

Heim strips away the literalness of everyday life, revealing the mysteries contained in the most commonplace. It is no 
coincidence that he selects the least loved of all birds to be the focus of this lyrical inquiry. The ubiquitous pigeon is 
emblematic of those inconsequential things that surround us, the routine stuff that so often goes unexamined. the result is 
no dour pronouncement by the artist on the fate of the dispossessed but a witty celebration of existence on the margins. 
The birds come across not as pitiable outcasts but as profound seekers after truth; driven by some internal compass they 
make their own way in the city, discovering their own paths, becoming poets of their own acts." 
Kate Forde, Frieze, November 2008. 

Alexander Heim studied at the Hochschule fur Bildende Kunste Hamburg, gaining a diploma in fine art in 2004, before 
completing an MFA at Goldsmiths College, London in 2006. Recent exhibitions include: 'Doves' at doggerfisher, 
Edinburgh; Feeling gave way to structure, The approach E2, London; Nought to Sixty, ICA, London and Drei Jahreszeiten 
(Three Seasons), Galerie Karin Guenther Hamburg. Alexander Heim currently lives and works in London.

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Alice O'Reilly
tank.tv
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alice@tank.tv
T: +44 (0)207323 3475
F: +44 (0)207631 4280

http://www.tank.tv

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Now showing:
Alexander Heim
1st - 14th February 2009

'Fresh Moves' - Order your copy on www.tank.tv

"A significant archive of creative practices in the early years of twenty-first century England"
Tyler Coburn, Tomorrow Unlimited

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tank.tv is an inspirational showcase for innovative work in film and video. Dedicated to exhibiting and promoting emerging and established international artists, www.tank.tv acts as a major online gallery and archive for video art. A platform for contemporary moving images.

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