still life
cally spooner
24 march–6 may 2023
Still Life
Cally Spooner
IMPERCEPTIBLE FIGURE – in support of Cally Spooner’s exhibition Still Life By Jesper List Thomsen
… Well, I saw her, I mean, I heard and saw her. I met her. She was singing and I heard her, and then I met her. *
The uncontrolled Eros is just as deadly as his fatal counterpart, the death instinct. **
There is a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir depicting an arrangement of onions. I came upon this painting just over a decade ago, at a museum in Massachusetts. The art historical categorisation of this painting is ‘still life’, yet, reading further into its history I have come to learn that Renoir painted it on a trip to Naples in 1881. I suppose it could also be categorised as travel painting. Or painting made elsewhere to where one belongs. Or painting that captures the light that one doesn’t know, inexcusably. Or painting carrying its subject through association, and its form as an excuse. The painting stayed with me since this first encounter. Its colours, its weight, its intrinsic communication through experience over matter. Was Renoir painting an onion? Or was he painting Naples? Was he driven by ‘immersion in place’, this taking priority over ‘death in representation’? Or is the enduring quality of this painting the result of his ability to summon an affinity between exactly that which is alive and that which is dead?
I remember nothing else from the museum, apart from a view into the garden. It was covered in snow. This view was as enticing as the Renoir, yet framed not by the limits of a canvas, but by the architecture of an institution. As is often the case when snow has just fallen and the sun is shining again, the impression that meets the eye seems very still.
There is a soundtrack in Cally Spooner’s exhibition that is divorced from its image. Presented on a single speaker is a recording of the dancer, Maggie Segale, captured by a radio mic while she delivers her eponymous solo to camera, in New York City, early 2020. Segale wore the mic for the 42 minutes and 15 seconds she was dancing. Her breath, her movement, her bodily intent is captured. So are the radio frequencies of a variety of phenomena that happened to pass through the airwaves and radio spectrum during this first and only take. The mic was ‘left open’, that is to say; no sound engineer was assigned to monitor the recording, to keep it ‘clean’. Segale, delivering her solo, becomes an acoustic imprint carved out of, or into, a sonic clutter of mobile phone waves, microwaves, WI-FI routers, etc. Into the radio-wave soundscape of New York City during those 42 minutes and 15 seconds. An aural image emerges, one that stands in opposition to the pictorial in its condition as negative. Like a fossil record of a body; its labour, its determination. To hear the image of Segale’s body in motion is an experience that decries the gaze and its innate supremacy. It is an almost imperceptible figure.
* Linus Van Pelt recounts to his friend Charlie Brown an encounter. While rollerblading home from school, Linus hears a voice singing. He follows his ear into a garden and comes upon Mimi, the girl to whom the voice belongs. He invites her to his birthday party. (Peanuts, ‘It Was My Best Birthday Party Ever, Charlie Brown’, 1997)
** Herbert Marcuse explains why civilisation begins when eros, the life instinct, is renounced and brought under control of death instincts: productiveness, toil and security. (Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud, 1974)
education
2001–2004 BA in Philosophy, The University of Sussex, School of Social and Political Science, UK
2005–2006 PgDip in Contemporary Art Theory, Goldsmith University of London, UK
2006–2008 BMFA Curating, Department of Art, Goldsmith University of London, UK
2018–2018 Posthuman Ethics. Pain, and Endurance, Prof. Rosi Bradotti’s Summer School at Utrecht, NL
2021–2024 PhD in practice based art, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, University of Copenhagen, DK
upcoming
2025 Frieze London, London, UK
2026 Slow Dance, curated by Jadine Collingwood, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, US (group)
2026 The Gesture and the non-visible”, curated by Abril Zales, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, MX (group)
2026 Performing Conditions: Artistic Labor and Dependency as Form, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts, US (group)
2026 Museum of Contemporary Art Roskilde, Roskilde, DK
solo exhibitions
2024 Deadtime, an anatomy study, Graham Foundation, Chicago, US
2024 —active because it leaks, OTO Sound Museum, Zurich, CH
2024 Deadtime, A Hypothesis of Resistance, O—Overgaden, Copenhagen, DK
2023 Dancing Still Life on a Single Breath, Cukrarna, Ljubljana, SLO
2023 Still Life, palace enterprise, Copenhagen, DK
2023 Duration, O—Overgaden, Copenhagen, DK
2022 Two Thousand Six Hundred and Seventy Four Seconds Wide, ZERO…Milan, IT
2021 Fifty Billion Hectares of Time, gb agency, Paris, FR
2021 DEAD TIME, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Sint-Martens-Latem, BE
2020 DEAD TIME, Parrhesiades, London, UK
2019 DEAD TIME, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, US
2018 SWEAT SHAME ETC., Swiss Institute, New York, US
2018 Everything Might Spill, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin, IT
2018 DRAG DRAG SOLO, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva, CH
2018 DEAD TIME, ZERO.., Milan, IT
2017 Soundtrack For A Troubled Time and Notes On Humiliation, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
2016 On False Tears and Outsourcing, New Museum, New York, US
2016 And you were wonderful, on stage, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL
2016 He wins every time, on time and under budget, gbagency, Paris, FR
2016 Bookclub 2.0, ZERO…, Milan, IT
2015 On False Tears and Outsourcing, De Vleeshal, Middelburg, NL
2015 POST PRODUCTION, Spike Island, Bristol, UK
2015 THE ANTI-CLIMAX CLIMAX, Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefeld, DE
2015 About a Work #2, ZERO…, Milan
2014 The Overall OOOOH, Kunstverein Langenhagen, Hannover, DE
2014 Regardless, it’s still her voice, gb agency, Paris, FR
2013 Carol, I think my place in history is assured, MOTInternational, Brussels, BE
2012 Collapsing in Parts, International Project Space, Birmingham, UK
2012 Seven Thirty Till Nine, Shanaynay, Paris, FR
2011 It’s 1957, and the press release still isn’t written, Hermes und der Pfau, Hamburg, DE
2010 At Five to Ten, Neue Alte Bruecke, Frankfurt, DE
group exhibitions
2025 Biennale Son, 2nd edition, Sion
2025 The Cynics Republic – Plac Defilad, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, curated by Pierre Bal Blanc, Warsaw, PL
2025 La Pista 500, Pinacoteca Agnelli, Torino, IT
2025 Screen Test for the Psoas Muscle, cited in Ima-Abassi Okon’s solo exhibition, Incorporeal hereditaments like Love [can] Set(s) You Free, according to Kelly, Case, Dru Hill, Kandice, LovHer, Montel and Playa with 50 – 60g of –D,)e,l,a,y,e,d1;—O,)n,s,e,t2;— ;[heart];M,)u,s,c,l,e3;[heart];—s,)o,r,e,n,e,s,s, Van Abbesmuseum, Eindhoven, NL
2025 Steady State, ZERO…, Milano, IT
2024 AMONG THE INVISIBLE JOINS, Works from the Enea Righi Collection, Museion, Bolzano, IT
2024 The Cynics Republic, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR
2024 Air de repos (Breathwork), CAPC, Bordeaux, FR
2023 I suoni del mondo, Castello di Rivoli, Torino, IT
2023 The Cargo Cult and other certanities, ZERO, Milan, IT
2023 Relations of Care, La Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, Torino, IT
2023 40 ans du Frac ! Gunaikîon, Frac Île-de-France, Romainville, FR
2023 Piége […], Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA, Bordeaux, FR
2022 MOVE Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR
2022 La Pista 500, Pinacoteca Agnelli, Torino, IT
2022 Red Light Green Light (In the Realm of the Senses), curated by Charlotte Sprogøe, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, DK
2022 Une musique intérieure, curated by Pierre Bal Blanc, Tabakalera, San Sebastian, ES
2022 Tout dans le cabinet mental, Centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry-le Crédac, Paris, FR
2022 Aller contre le vent. Performances, actions et autres rituels, Frac Franche-Comté, Besançon, FR
2022 reboot : responsiveness, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf and Ludwig Forum, Aachen, DE
2021 A Show About Nothing, BY ART MATTERS, Hangzhou, CN
2021 I got up, curated by Pierre Baal Blanc, gb agency, Paris, FR
2021 The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, and Performance, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, US
2021 Jahresgaben, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, and Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, DE
2021 Statements, The Blank, Bergamo, IT
2021 Emotions at Work, Musée d’art de Joliette, Joilette, CA
2021 Arcimboldo Face to Face, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, FR
2021 Dance?, CAAM, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, ES
2021 Deux Scénarios pour une collection, Frac Normandie Rouen, FR
2021 In the Open – series II, The Common Guild, Glasgow, UK
2020 Espressioni, Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli, Turin, IT
2020 Parrhesiades Volume 1, with Jesper List Thomsen and Quinn Latimer, Radio Athènes, Athens, GR
2020 All Criteria This Position Any Moment, curated by Pierre Bal-Blanc, Haus N, Athens, GR
2020 NOT MADE, NOT CHOSEN, NOT PRESENTED, ML Fine Art, London, curated by Studio for Propositional Cinema, UK
2020 The Full Moon Sleeps at Night, Musée d’art contemporain de la Haute-Vienne – Château de Rochechouart, Rochechouart, FR
2020 AGAINandAGAINandAGAINand, MAMbo, Bologna, IT
2020 La Plage, ZERO… Milano, IT
2019 Dall’argilla all’algoritmo, Arte e tecnologia, works from the Castello di Rivoli collection, Gallerie d’Italia, Milan, IT
2019 A Talk In Three Parts With Painting, Grüner Salon, Volksbühne, Berlin, DE
2019 Beyond Performance, curated by Alberto Salvadori, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, IT
2019 Geste, CNEAI, Paris, FR
2019 Speculative Possibilities, curated by Sepake Angiama, Center for Contemporary Arts, Tallin, EST
2019 IMMATERIAL, curated by Michelangelo Miccolis, Material Art Fair, Mexico City, MX
2019 Survivre ne suffit pas, Frac Franche-Comté, Besancon, FR
2018 Strange Days—Memories of the Future, curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Strand, London, UK
2018 General Rehearsal, V-A-C / Kadist / MMOMA, Moscow FRONT, Cleveland Triennial, Cleveland, US
2018 Stagings, Soundings, Readings—Free Jazz II, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, Singapore
2018 Scripts, Kunstverein Bielefeld, Bielefeld, DE
2018 Performance TV, curated by Mathilde Roman
2018 Making Oddkin – for joy, for trouble, for volcano love, curated by Nadja Argyropoulou, Nisyros, GR
2017 Speak, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
2017 Action!, Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, CH
2017 Better Self, Zach!ta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, PL
2017 The Critic as Artist, curated by Michael Bracewell and Andrew Hunt, Reading International, Reading, UK
2017 The Forecast, curated by Laura McLean-Ferris, Croy Nielsen, Vienna, AU
2017 Parcours, Art Basel, Basel, CH
2017 IMMATERIAL, curated by Michelangelo Miccolis, Material Art Fair, Mexico City, MX
2017 On The Wall In Chalk Is Written, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, curated by Studio for Propositional Cinema, DE
2017 From Concrete to Liquid to Spoken, Centre for Contemporary Art Geneva, Geneva, CH
2017 On Affection, Cally Spooner and Bruce Nauman, NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona, ES
2017 The act of drinking a Coke by yourself is the lowest form of art, ZERO…, Milan, IT
2017 A Rehearsal for What?, Bel Ami, Los Angeles, UK
2016 Biennale of Moving Image, Centre for Contemporary Art Geneva, Geneva, CH
2016 British Art Show 8, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, UK
2016 Joining Forces with the Unknown, Lafayette Anticipations, Paris, FR
2016 And she will say: hi her, ailleurs, to higher grounds…, curated by Laure Prouvost, Kunstmuseum Luzerne, Luzerne, CH
2016 Middle Grays, Color Bars, and the comma in between, curated by Public Fiction, Seattle Art Fair, Seattle, US
2016 Susy Culinski & Friends, curated by Beatriz Marchi, Fanta Spazio, Milan, IT
2016 Art Basel Film, Art Basel, Basel, CH
2016 Time-Lines, Independent Régence, Brussels, BE
2016 Alfred Jarry Archipelago, La Ferme du Buisson, Centre for Contemporary Art, Noisiel, FR
2016 Night Transmissions: Electronic Intimacies, curated by Margot Norton, aired Icelandic National Television
2015 A Fragile But Marvelous Life, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, US
2015 Hotel Theory, REDCAT Gallery, Los Angeles, US
2015 The Grantchester Pottery paints the stage, curated by Grantchester Pottery, Jerwood Visual Arts, London
2015 British Art Show 8, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, UK
2015 Till the Stars Turn Cold, curated by Laura Mclean Ferris and Kyla McDonald, Glasgow Sculpture Studios, Glasgow, UK
2015 The boys the girls and the political, curated by Hana Noorali and Lynton Talbot, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
2014 La Voix Humaine, Kunstverein Munich, Munich, DE
2014 Frieze Film, Frieze Projects, London, UK
2014 Frieze Sounds, Frieze Projects, New York, US
2014 The Preparation of the Novel, Fabra i Coats – Centre d’Art Contermporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, ES
2014 Pool, Kestnergesellschaft Museum Hannover, Hannover, DE
2014 Till the Stars Turn Cold, curated by Laura Mclean Ferris and Kyla McDonald, S1 Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
2014 The Influence of Furniture on Love, Wysing Art Centre, Cambridge, UK
2014 Till youth and genial years are flown, ZERO…, Milan, IT
2014 Significant Others (I am small, it’s the pictures that got big), High Art, Paris, FR
2013 Performa 13, The National Academy New York, US
2013 POST show, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, DK
2013 Relaunch, KW Institute, Berlin, DE
2013 A Spoken Word Exhibition, curated by Mathieu Copeland, Jeu de Paume, Paris, FR
2013 Provisional Information, Camberwell Space, London, UK
2012 Memory Marathon, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
2012 And Yet There They Still Are, with Sidsel Meineche Hansen, LUX, London, UK
2012 I Proclaim You Proclaim We Proclaim, curated by Capucine Perrot Stroom, The Hague, NL
2012 In the Belly of the Whale (Act II), Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz, ES
2011 Outrageous Fortune, Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea Summer Fair, with Am Nuden Da, Outpost, Norwich, UK
2011 The Department of Wrong Answers, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge, UK
2011 Summer Show, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London, UK
2010 Une Exposition (du) Sensible, Synagogue de Delme, Delme Perform A Lecture!, curated by Ellen Blumenstein and Dieter Roelstraete, The Office, Berlin, DE
2010 Session_10_Untitled + Words, curated by Am Nuden Da, Four Boxes Gallery, Krabbesholm, Skive, DK
2010 With Words Like Smoke, Chelsea Space and Resonance FM, London, UK
2010 Cally Spooner + Seth Pick, MOT International, London, UK
2009 Session_7_Words, Am Nuden Da, London
2009 Session_6_Lecture, Am Nuden Da, London, UK
2008 Two Lectures, Neue Alte Bruecke Gallery, Frankfurt, DE
live (solo)
2025 Warm Up, Melody’s Warm Up & A Lecture on Stagnation, Trajectoires, Le Festival de danse, in collaboration with Le Frac des Pays de la Loire, performed by Sonia Garcia, Marie De Brugerolle and Severine Lefevre, FR
2024 Extract from Deadtime, an anatomy study, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, NO
2022 On stagnation, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR
2021 DEAD TIME (Maggie’s Solo live), Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf
2021 DEAD TIME (lecture), with Will Holder and Hendrik Folkerts, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne
2021 DEAD TIME (talks), with Jesper List Thomsen and Will Holder, Overgaden Copenhagen
2021 WHY WORDS NOW, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, the School of Sculpture in collaboration with Art Hub Copenhagen
2019 OFFSHORE IN NEW YORK, Swiss Institute, New York
2018 Failed British Silver, Centre National de la Danse, Paris OFFSHORE IN KINGSTON, Stanley Picker Gallery, Kingston
2017 OFFSHORE IN BELGIUM, Playground Festival, Museum M, Leuven
2017 OFFSHORE IN BILBAO, Bulegoa, Bilbao
2017 United in Stomach Flu, London Weeps, Serpentine Gallery, London
2017 On False Tears and Outsourcing (musicians in Iceland audition to become a manufactured band), Sequences Festival, live casting, Mengi, Reykjavik
2016 On False Tears and Outsourcing (musicians respond to emails and manufacture a pop song, just in time, daily), curated by Charles Aubin, Lafayette Anticipations, Paris
2014 And you were wonderful, on stage, Tate Britain, London
2014 He’s In A Great Place!, BMW Live Performance Room commission, Tate Modern, London
2014 Baby I got better things to be doing with my time, Frieze Film, London
2014 IT’S ABOUT YOU, The High Line, public art commission, New York
2013 And you were wonderful, on stage, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
2013 And you were wonderful, on stage, Performa 13, The National Academy New York
2012 A Six Stage Manifesto On Action, Institute of Contemporary Art, London
curating & programming
2024 A Thesis on Spillage, a Symposium-like Gathering Assembled by Cally Spooner and Hendrik Folkerts. With Nuar Alsadir, Marquis Bey, Wendy Brown, Joshhua Chambers-Letson, Tony Cokes, Hendrik Folkerts, Melody Giron, Irena Haiduk, Sarah Herda, Darrell Jones, Sanford Kwinter, Ralph Lemon, Maggie Segale, Cally Spooner, and Fraces Stark, Graham Foundation, Chicago.
2022–2023 Dead Time Talks organized by Cally Spooner with Will Holder, Andreas Führer, Irena Haiduk, Jesper List Thomsen, Marie Lund, Rhea Dall and Lola, O–Overgaden, Copenhagen.
2022 Asynchronicity (a symposium-like-gathering), organised by Cally Spooner in the context of the project reboot: responsiveness, a collaborative, multi-cycle, anti-racist, and queer-feminist dialogue initiated by the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne and Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf.
2019 OFFSHORE IN NEW YORK: Practical Philosophy, organised by Cally Spooner with James Bridle, Evan Calder Willams, Yael Davids, Hendrik Folkerts, Irena Haiduk, Dotan Lesham, Dana Luciano, Joshua Simon, Jackie Wang and Alex Waterman, Swiss Institute, New York.
2018 Several lectures on Display (false tears, unscripted skin, riots), organised by Cally Spooner, with Federico Campagna, Naomi Segal, Isabel Valli and OFFSHORE, Kings College Anatomy Theatre, London
2017 MICRO COMPOSITION, curated by Cally Spooner, with Am Nuden Da, Alex Cecchetti, Tyler Coburn, Angelo Custódio, Roberto Fassone, Ghislaine Leung, Danae Papazymouri, Public Fiction, Jesper List Thomsen, Viola Yeşiltaç, David Cunningham, Jean-Pascal Flavien, San Serif, Amsterdam
2017 A social body event, organised by Cally Spooner, Bellamy, Earle Brown (performed by William Crosby, Andrew Morgan, Lucy Railton, Joe Zeitlin), Tania Bruguera / Hannah Arendt International Institute for Artivism (INSTAR), Evan Calder Williams, Tyler Coburn, Akwugo Emejulu in conversation with Victoria Lidchi, Anna Halprin, Jesper List Thomsen, Nina Power / The London Student Assembly, the Artist Placement Group (APG) and Yugoexport / Irena Haiduk / Central Saint Martins, London, Serpentine Gallery
2017 A public workshop on Use: Human resources and irksome tools, organised by Cally Spooner, with Simon Ascencio / Jessica, Marie de Brugerolles, Tyler Coburn, Maria Dada, Michelangelo Miccolis, STUK, Leuven
2017 An Intimate Symposium on Maintenance, organised by Cally Spooner, with Lisa Baraitser, Kate Coyne, Marina Vishmidt, Whitechapel Gallery, London
2015 Violent Incident, curated by Cally Spooner, with Rosa Aiello, Bernadette Corporation, Andrea Fraser, Jef Geys, Gil Leung, Bruce Nauman, Danh Vo, Vleeshal, Middelburg
publications (solo)
2024 A Hypothesis of Resistance, edited in conversation with Will Holder, published by Mousse, Milan
2024 SWEAT SHAME ETC., published by Lenz Press, Milan, and Swiss Institute, New York
2021 A Lecture On Stagnation, published by uh books
2020 On False Tears, published by Hatje Canz and Edizioni Madre
2018 And You Were Wonderful, On Stage, published by Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, and Mousse Publishing, Milan
2017 Cally Spooner: Scripts, edited by Andrew Hunt and Cally Spooner, with an introduction by Will Holder, Slimvolume
2016 Cally Spooner, Peep-Hole Sheet #28 – On False Tears and Outsourcing, published by Mousse Publishing
2013 Collapsing in Parts, novella, edited by Cally Spooner and Andrew Bonacina, Mousse Publishing, Milan and International Project Space, Birmingham
writing / publishing
2023 A Hypothesis of Resistance, five essays on performance (“Asynchronicity,” “Rehearsal,” “The Present Tense,” “Undetectability,” and “Duration,”) published in Mousse #81 (Fall 2022) to #85 (Fall 23), edited by Will Holder
2020 DEAD TIME in Parrhesiades, Volume I, 2019-2020, edited by Lynton Talbot
2020 (Contribution to) The Paradox of Stillness, edited by Vincenzo de Bellis, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
2018 United in Stomach Flu, London Weep (script)s, Obieg, published by Ujazdowski Castle, Centre for Contemporary Art, issue 8
2017 A Lecture on False Tears and Outsourcing, contribution to Hotel Theory Reader, co-published by Fillip and REDCAT, Los Angeles
2017 Dance: Roundtable Discussion (with Maria Hassabi and Charles Aubin), Kaleidoscope, 29
2016 The Architectures of Management, Cally Spooner interviews Dan Graham, in On False Tears and Outsourcing, exhibition catalogue, New Museum, New York
2016 A not so sad September: (Cally Spooner on Umberto Eco’s Open Work today.), essay, Flash Art International, issue 308
2016 On False Tears and Outsourcing, Peep Hole Sheet, issue 28 Chapter from Collapsing in Parts, republished in Social Medium: Artists Writing 2000-2015 by Paper Monument, New York
2015 Synopsis, text, published by The Grantchester Pottery paints the stage, exhibition catalogue, Jerwood Visual Arts, London
2015 The New Elvis, essay, published by S1 Sheffield and Glasgow Sculpture Studios
2015 About a Work No2, published by YiWAB and ZERO…, Milan
2014 Indirect Language (Act 1), An exhibition to hear read: Volume 4, radio play, Jeu de Paume
2014 A Solo Event for Thinking (Version Two), E.R.O.S #3, EROS Publishing
2014 Losing My Body To Time, score published in, Mousse Magazine, Mousse Publishing
2012 The Erotics of Public Possibility, essay and poster distributed by post, International Project Space
2011 Indirect Language (Act 8), An exhibition to hear read: Volume 3, radio play, David Roberts Art Foundation Indirect Language (Act 5), FR DAVID: “Spin Cycle”, radio play, De Appel arts centre
2011 Indirect Language, An exhibition to hear read: Volume 1, radio play, Synagogue de Delme
2011 The Observer’s guide to the Serpentine Gallery Garden Marathon – Compiled in One Voice by Will Holder, Serpentine Garden, Marathon, Serpentine Gallery, London
2010 Notes for a pending Performance, Session_12_Words +Untitled, Krabbesholm Højskole
2010 The Erotics of Public Possibility, Something Blue; A Curiosa of Contemporary Erotica, compiled by Neue Alte Bruecke (launch at Pilot, Landings, Oslo)
public collections
Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin, IT
Capc Musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, FR
Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL
Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, MON
Fondation Lafayette, Paris, FR
FRAC Franche Comté, Besançon, FR
FRAC Ile de France, Paris, FR
Kadist Foundation, Paris, FR
British Council Collection, London, UK
CNAP, Paris, FR
awards & grants
Graham Foundation Fellow, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts
Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Mads Øvlisen Scholarship for Practice-Based Art
Utrecht University Summer School, Posthuman Ethics, Pain and Endurance, with Rosi Braidotti
Illy Present Future Prize
Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award
Stanley Picker Fellowship, Kingston University, in collaboration The Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP)
residencies
Writer in Residence, Whitechapel Gallery, London
EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Centre), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, International Artist in Residence
Art Pace, San Antonio
Wysing Arts Centre Residency
Fondation Lafayette, Paris production residency
Cite Des Arts residency, Paris, in collaboration with the French Cultural Institute and the British Council
bio
Born 1983, Ascot, UK
Lives and works in London, UK & Turin, IT
Cally Spooner is a British-Italian artist and a writer, whose choreographies, rooted in her training in philosophy, unfold across media—through sound, on film, in text, as objects, and illustrated in drawings. Her series of five essays on “performance”, A Hypothesis of Resistance, was published as a monographic text book by Mousse, Milano in 2024. In each essay Spooner holds and examines temporalities which defy and eclipse the standardizations that drive individual and societal bodies to perform toward an entirely metric-oriented future. Beginning with “Asynchronicity” then extending to “Rehearsal,” “The Present Tense,” “Undetectability,” and “Duration”, A Hypothesis of Resistance was edited in conversation with Will Holder.
Solo and group exhibitions by Spooner count institutions including Palais de Tokyo (Paris), New Museum (New York), Graham Foundation (Chicago), Whitechapel Gallery (London), Castello di Rivoli (Turin), and Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam). Her works are found in public collections including the British Council Collection (UK) Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (IT), Centre Pompidou (FR), CAPC Bordeaux (FR), Fondation Lafayette (FR), FRAC Franche Comté (FR), FRAC Ile de France (FR), Kadist Foundation (FR), and Stedelijk Museum (NL).