Artist Alexandre Singh presented The Alkahest: Chapter 1, a performance of an epic tale in the style of Homer, in which Singh recited the first of three interwoven and fantastical narratives from memory to a small and intimate audience.
The title of the performance, The Alkahest, takes its name from a substance sought after by alchemists throughout the ages of the medieval and early renaissance. It was described as a ‘universal solvent’, a liquid that could dissolve any matter into it. The universe of The Alkahest is one in which time, geography, narratives and history have been blended together, building a modern epic; a story of our times constructed from a dissolving of all the narratives that have and will continue to populate our consciousness.
Singh (born 1980) is a Franco-British artist based in New York. His work explores a variety of media and exhibition formats, working across literature, collages, installations and performances. Recent solo exhibitions include: 3 Lectures + 1 Story = 4 Evenings,: Performa Biennial 09, White Columns, New York, NY; Assembly Instructions (Tangential Logick), Harris Lieberman Gallery, New York, NY; The Marque of the Third Stripe, Monitor, Rome, Italy. Exhibitions include: Dynasty, Palais de Tokyo/Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris; Free, New Museum, New York, NY; Manifesta 8: European Biennial, Murcia, Spain.
Park Nights
Park Nights is an annual series of music, theatre, performances, talks and film screenings staged on Friday nights in the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, designed in 2010 by Jean Nouvel. Park Nights culminated on the weekend of 16th and 17th October with the Serpentine Gallery Map Marathon, the latest in the Serpentine’s series of Marathon events, conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist.
