About the work

Elmgreen & Dragset’s edition for Whitechapel Gallery features four close-up photographs of pavements taken from above. The edition relates to an ongoing interest the artists have in tarmac, concrete and road signs, materials which are overlooked yet embody an urban archaeology. The photographs were taken by the artists on Brick Lane, a street in the East End of London known for its industrial history and multicultural communities but also its recent regeneration into an entertainment and luxury living destination. A metropolitan area such as Brick Lane has become expensive and gentrified over time but the street itself remains the constant. This is evident in the patchwork of the pavements and the layers of what is left behind, seen in the four photographs. For Elmgreen & Dragset, the politics and history of urban space is captured in its pavements and roads.

The four photographs are cropped in square format, drawing attention to the forms and lines of the paved surfaces. Re-framing the street markings as geometric shapes in black and white and yellow, the aesthetic is reminiscent of formal minimalist paintings. Elmgreen & Dragset elevate the everyday into the gallery. Brick Lane, 2018, invites us to re-experience the familiar and reconnect with urban space.

About the artist

Michael Elmgreen (born 1961 in Copenhagen, Denmark) and Ingar Dragset (born 1969 in Trondheim, Norway) are based in Berlin and have worked together as an artist duo since 1995. Their beguiling spatial scenarios explore social and sexual politics and unveil the power structures embedded in the everyday. 

Selected Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions include Museum Haus Lange, Kunstmuseen Krefeld (2017); FLAG Art Foundation, New York (2016); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2016); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2016); PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2015); Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (2014); Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (2014); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2013); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2011); ZKM Museum of Modern Art, Karlsruhe (2010); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (2009); The Power Plant, Toronto (2006); Serpentine Gallery, London (2006); Tate Modern, London (2004); and Kunsthalle Zürich (2001). Their work has been included in the Istanbul (2013, 2011, 2001), Liverpool (2012), Performa 11 (New York, 2011), Singapore (2011), Moscow (2011, 2007), Venice (2009, 2003), Gwangju (2006, 2002), São Paulo (2002), and Berlin (1998) biennials.