TICK TACK presents Wish You Were Here, a new site-specific exhibition by renowned American artist Banks Violette, with an immersive sound work by Stephen O’Malley from Sunn O))).

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, born 1973 in Ithaca, New York, is an American artist whose practice encompasses sculpture, installation, drawing and sound, informed by minimalism, conceptual art and subcultural forms drawn from heavy metal, punk and gothic aesthetics. His work has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, BPS22 in Charleroi, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle, Kunsthalle Wien, Kunsthalle Bergen and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. He has participated in significant group exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Migros Museum for Contemporary Art in Zurich and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Violette’s work is held in major public collections including MoMA, the Guggenheim and the Whitney Museum of American Art. His long-standing collaborations with musicians, most notably Stephen O’Malley, extend his exploration of duration, intensity and absence across visual and sonic forms.

Stephen O’Malley is a composer, musician and visual artist whose practice spans experimental, drone and minimalist sound. He has conceptualised and participated in numerous projects over more than two decades, including SUNN O))), KTL and Khanate, and has collaborated with artists including Scott Walker, Kali Malone, Alvin Lucier, choreographer Gisèle Vienne, authors Dennis Cooper and Alan Moore, Peter Rehberg, Fujiko Nakaya, Jim Jarmusch and Johan Johansson. O’Malley has also worked with experimental music centres such as IRCAM, INA-GRM in Paris and EMS in Stockholm. A vigorous live performer, he has toured extensively since 2000, creating immersive environments where electric guitar minimalism transforms perception of space and time.

Curated/text by Maria Abramenko

Artists: Banks Violette