text: David Troostwyk Studio Award, Exhibition at StudioRCA, The Aleph and Other Stories by Jonny Williamson | Royal College of Art
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  David Troostwyk Studio Award, Exhibition at StudioRCA, The Aleph and Other Stories by Jonny Williamson
  David Troostwyk Studio Award, Exhibition at StudioRCA, The Aleph and Other Stories by Jonny Williamson
  StudioRCA, The Aleph and Other Stories by Jonny Williamson
  StudioRCA, The Aleph and Other Stories by Jonny Williamson
  Private view: Friday 27 November 2015, 6.30–9pm
  Exhibition open to the public: 28 & 29 November and 5 & 6,12 & 13 December, 2–4pm
  StudioRCA, 1 Riverlight Quay, Nine Elms Lane, London SW8 5AU
  The Royal College of Art will unveil the inaugural David Troostwyk Studio Award exhibition at StudioRCA in Nine Elms, London, on 28 November. This exhibition marks the completion of a year-long residency at the Matt’s Gallery Martello Street studio for recent RCA graduate Jonny Williamson. The selection committee comprised Robin Klassnik, Director Matt’s Gallery, artist Susan Hiller and RCA Head of Sculpture Jordan Baseman, with the assessment being based on Williamson’s 2014 degree show work.
  The ambitious new installation entitled The Aleph and Other Stories deals with manifold and overlapping themes. The title of the exhibition refers to a short story by iconic Argentinian poet and writer Jorge Luis Borges, The Aleph, a fantastical tale of a specific point in space-time through which all other points are simultaneously visible with total clarity.
  As RCA Sculpture tutor Kate Davis notes: “Williamson’s work is complex and refers to the ancient and the modern through a perpetually layered combination of the digital and the analog, as well as the fabricated and the found, making reference to the constant passage of information through various portals and screens.”
  The Aleph and Other Stories depicts moments of our supremely layered lives through multiple slide projections, computer generated visuals that never repeat yet appear to continually replicate, ethnographically based visuals and formal minimalist obelisks that merge into an elliptical system of knowledge. The work embraces themes of the infinite and the mystic sublime.
  The David Troostwyk Studio Award was established in 2014 in collaboration with Matt’s Gallery to provide an RCA MA Sculpture graduate with free studio space and ongoing mentoring from Robin Klassnik OBE, Director of Matt’s Gallery for one year.
  StudioRCA is a site of production as well as a place for the display of artworks by invited artists, recent alumni and current students of the Royal College of Art. The vitrine-like properties of StudioRCA allow for a public audience to view new artworks as they are being produced.
  Ravi Govindia, leader of Wandsworth Council said: “Jonny Williamson’s exhibition at StudioRCA is hugely exciting, just the sort of thing we want here in Nine Elms. Wandsworth has a long established relationship with the Royal College of Art, which has been based in Battersea for many years. StudioRCA opened just last year, and I’m delighted Matt’s Gallery will be joining the RCA in playing an increasingly significant role, bringing to life our cultural aspiration for the area.”
  Rector of the RCA, Dr Paul Thompson said: “Wandsworth’s support has been invaluable in further cementing our place at the creative and cultural heart of the borough. In partnership with Matt’s Gallery, the RCA is delighted to bring Jonny’s work to a wider audience.”
  Jonny Williamson acknowledges the support of the David Troostwyk estate, Robin Klassnik and Matt’s Gallery London, the RCA Sculpture programme and material sponsor Mandarin Stone. StudioRCA is delivered with support from Futurecity and St James Group and is coordinated by Kate Davis, RCA Senior Tutor Sculpture.
  Notes to Editors
  The nearest tube to StudioRCA is Vauxhall, the nearest rail stations are Vauxhall / Battersea Park / Queenstown Road and nearby bus routes include 344 & 156
  The Royal College of Art is the world’s leading university of art and design, placing at Number One in the 2015 QS World University Rankings.
  Specialising in teaching and research, the RCA offers the degrees of MA, MPhil and PhD across the disciplines of applied art, fine art, design, communications and humanities. There are over 1,500 Master’s and doctoral students and more than 1,000 professionals interacting with them – including scholars, art and design practitioners, along with specialists, advisers and distinguished visitors.
  Matt’s Gallery was founded in 1979 by Robin Klassnik as an experimental and artist-led exhibition space in a studio in Martello Street, East London. Klassnik established the gallery with the ambition to provide the best possible circumstances for artists to make exhibitions of their work, moving beyond practices of display and towards an early and pioneering conception of the exhibition as a form and discursive platform in its own right. Still going strong in 2015, Matt’s Gallery has staged numerous exhibitions that have become international points of reference in the field, including seminal projects by Mike Nelson, Susan Hiller, Richard Wilson and Jimmie Durham.
  David Troostwyk studied at the Royal College of Art and was the first artist Klassnik invited to exhibit at Matt’s Gallery. That exhibition, titled Supreme Object, combined a number of elements, including a cast washing machine, posters and sound. In the words of the press release issued at the time: The Gallery is seen as a brief but concentrated stop-over for new work to be experienced or checked – as much by the artist as by anyone else who may be really interested.