Frances Stark Presents "A Torment of Follies": An Exhibition Exploring Art and Literature

This exhibition showcases Frances Stark's recent body of work, "A Torment of Follies," which features large-scale paper works. The exhibition explores the intricate relationships between art and literature, image and text, drawing inspiration from Witold Gombrowicz's novel "Ferdydurke."

Frances Stark's characteristic approach involves exploring the diverse interrelationships between art and literature, image and text, engaging with both visual art and writing. Her work often investigates the artistic and creative process itself. In her intricate collages, she creates tapestries of various found and invented signs, text fragments, and graphic elements, incorporating literary quotes and autobiographical references. For this exhibition at the Secession, Frances Stark presents 22 large-format paper works from her latest series, "A Torment of Follies." The starting point for her text-drawings is the 1937 novel "Ferdydurke" by Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz, which tells the story of Józio's struggle against the socially defined forms of life. Stark engages with the novel's main motifs, such as the human act of masking when interacting with others, and the individual's right to immaturity and indeterminacy—qualities that possess a subversive potential against prevailing conventions. Stark develops a form of adaptation that links the process of reading and rereading a text with its translation into another language. Beyond selecting a short novel sequence, she uses the source as inspiration for her visual interpretations, combining integrated quotes with varied dance figures, and ornamental and material-rich playfulness in an ironically light-hearted manner. The text fragments appear as reflections on artistic practice, addressing the torturous self-doubt, the ambivalence between the perceived unique intensity of one's own creativity and the uncertainty of whether its nuances can be understood, as well as the resulting feelings of dependence on the audience, helplessness, or ridicule. Through motif choice and execution, Stark creates a play of contrasts between immediate gestures and their solidification into poses, truthfulness and mask-like pretense, seriousness and clownery.

Information regarding tickets for the exhibition can be found via the provided link to the official ticketing partner. Visitors should consult the official ticketing platform for details on admission and booking requirements.