The Nail, The Colours, The Mast

If you're going to be in Berlin for the Biennale and Gallery Weekend then one to add to your itinerary is The Nail, The Colours, The Mast at Kotti-Shop, Kreuzberg, the opening for which is  20.00 - 23.30 on Friday 27 April.

The show is curated by Tim Greaves, Chris Rollen and Flora Whiteley who write "'The Nail, The Colours, The Mast’ is a dismantling of the expression ‘nailing one’s colours to the mast’. The original phrase, which means to defiantly state an opinion and stick to it, has its origins in nautical history. One signal of communication used by 17th century shipmates, was to lower the colours (flags) as a sign of defeat, so to physically nail the colours to the mast meant ‘No Surrender!’. This expression of specific, defiant, codified meaning has been dismantled and all that we are left with are its constituent parts, no longer defiant, offering themselves up to be rebuilt in a field where new meaning and re-readings are possible, something more abstract fulfilled through materiality. When the nail, the colours and the mast are reconfigured do they hold onto some ghosts of their past meaning? Perhaps they will have echoes of defunct purposes, perhaps they will create an environment where their material-form and content start to blur.”

The exhibition includes: Kit Craig / Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson / Kerstin Drechsel / Stefan Endewardt / Tim Greaves / Annette Knol / Mick McIIroy / Stephen Palmer / Christopher Rollen / Phoebe Unwin / Flora Whiteley