Reading and artist talk with Block Universe artist Sophie Jung at 30 Old Burlington Street (Cork Street Galleries) on Sunday, 19 May 2019.

Sophie Jung read The Bigger Sleep libretto and was joined by Paul Clinton for a conversation, discussing the artists practice and her work The Bigger Sleep – rehush (hush) which premiered in London with Block Universe on 18 May 2019.

Excerpt: We don’t fall in love with the fictional detective because she knows all the answers and always gets it right. We identify with her because she too is caught in signs, bungling interpretations of words or events, and only occasionally stumbling upon something like a workable meaning. If Jung were pretending not to perform, not to be delivering words for an audience, but just saying them straight and sincerely, in full confidence of their meaning, that would be the real con trick. Authenticity here is in acknowledging the pretence.

Sophie Jung might be the loose end artist. Her way of allowing things to hang is another way of keeping them dynamic, without resolution, not finishing an idea or a work. This suspension, or lack of resolution, is as much a purgatory and limbo as it is a way of keeping things alive and open.

The Bigger Sleep – rehush (hush) is an adaptation of Jung’s major installation at the Kunstmuseum Basel into a site-specific performance for Block Universe’s 2019 edition.

Programme
12noon Reading by Sophie Jung
1:30pm Sophie Jung in conversation with Paul Clinton

A limited and signed edition of Sophie Jung’s libretto was available during the event.

The set of The Bigger Sleep – rehush (hush) could be visited daily from 11am to 6pm from the 19 May to 1 June.

We thank Cork Street Galleries / Pollen Estate for generously providing the space.

Photos by  Manuela Barczewski