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Things I did when I was a young manDaniel Rees

22 September - 03 November 2007

Mission Gallery is pleased to host the first UK solo show by Berlin based artist Daniel Rees. Originally from Swansea, Dan relocated to Berlin after completing his studies at Camberwell College of Art.

Rees works in a wide range of mediums including photography, film, video, drawing and installation. His work often comes out of a spontaneous idea or thought that tries to encourage new potentials within the communication of ideas. One of the central themes within Rees’s work is the mixing of personal histories and the history of art in a way that reates new narratives and points of view. The function of art in everyday life is something that comes under scrutiny, attempting, sometimes irreverently, to bring art and artists down to earth. 

His method of working relies on certain ideas and possibilities opened up by conceptual art practice and nearly always contains elements of humour or nostalgia designed to help the viewer create their own bond with the work. He enjoys taking a lateral approach to thinking, enabling him to make connections between things which would not normally exist. Such approaches are often articulated within his work by wordplay such as the work titled, ‘How much wood would one man need to make Edward Woodward out of wood’ or ‘What is Gillian Wearing?’ Another piece titled 'A Cup of Tea with Gavin Turk', is an original Gavin Turk edition Daniel purchased from The White Cube called 'Tea Stain'. He then added his own tea stain alongside Gavin's and re-titled the piece.

Rather than being about humour or laughter directly, the pivotal point in Daniels work is what he calls the ‘moment of creativity’ in a person’s mind when they think of a joke. Daniels work displays a rejected logic; calculated misunderstandings are used as methods for creating new meanings out of the chaos of mixing up the rules of language.

Other selected solo and group exhibitions have included ‘Music to my Years’, Galerie Mille D’Air, Berlin 2006, ‘Known and the unknown’, Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen 2006, ‘Home for lost ideas’,  Galerie General Public, Berlin 2006 and an artist’s book project ‘Home for lost ideas’, which is due to be published in 2007 by Revolver.

A full colour catalogue will be available to accompany this exhibition, with an essay written by curator Adam Carr.

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