Greene Naftali Gallery is pleased to present their fourth project with British artist Lucy Gunning, entitled Quarry. In it, Gunning lays out two episodes: one of the great outdoors rarified by industry, and the other, of the interior world and home of a geologist opened up.

On one side of the double-sided projection, Gunning projects Blast. Here, footage of an exploding rock quarry loops endlessly, documenting the daily blasting of vast areas of the earth. As sirens blare, new wounds are gouged, leaving the land scarred once again by this recurring practice. This is balanced by the extensive knowledge of a zealous geological specialist, projected on the other side of the screen, entitled Dr. Chris Alabaster. Gunning follows this man through his considered and precious collection of crystals, cramped in confined domesticity.

Gunning also activates the viewer in the drama tinged with apocalyptic undertones. In creating stadium seating in the gallery, she implies that the viewer cannot distance themselves from the destruction, nor can they avoid taking part in the violence which transpires. Thus, Gunning forces the viewer to engage both critically and physically in this dichotomy of scale and intention.

Lucy Gunning received her MFA from Goldsmiths College in 1994. She has exhibited widely in England and has shown at the Tate and the Westfalischer Kunstverein, Munich. She is represented by Greene Naftali in New York and Matt’s Gallery in London.

Lucy Gunning created this work in June 2003 during a Moving Image Residency at Spike Island in collaboration with Picture This Moving Image.