Wish You Were Here explores the persistence of structures after meaning has dissolved. Absence is not a theme to be processed; it is the condition under which the exhibition operates. Forms, language and action continue even when their foundations have disappeared. Nothing is resolved, nothing reassured. Events repeat, signs circulate and perception is constantly haunted by what cannot be fully present.

In Wish You Were Here, Banks Violette (Ithaca, 1973) presents a monumental sculptural installation specifically produced for TICK TACK’s brutalist exhibition space (Léon Stynen's The Sundial from 1955). Violette's work is both an intimate self-examination and radical social critique, a distinctive fusion of the frayed edges of American society with the aesthetic visual language of the hardcore punk underground scene. Throughout TICK TACK’s three exhibition floors, an immersive musical piece composed by Stephen O’Malley—founder of drone metal band Sunn O))) and a frequent collaborator with Violette—resonates.

Banks Violette has held solo exhibitions at institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, BPS22 Art Museum, and is represented by Gladstone Gallery.

Artists: Banks Violette