Ian Whittlesea

Occasionals I, Ian Whittlesea, A Breathing Bulb (2014)

Text: Christina Li
Photography: Gunnar Meier
Graphic Design: Sabo Day, assisted by Augustinas Milkus
Pages: 8 plus cover
Dimensions: 230 x 170 mm
Edition: 300
Publisher: Tlön Projects, 2024
ISBN: 9789079605101

Price: 10 Eu

The publication was issued on the occasion of the exhibition Occasionals I, A Breathing Bulb by Ian Whittlesea held from 13 April to 4 May 2024 at Rongwrong in Amsterdam.

Occasionals is Tlön Projects’ curatorial concept and part of its Satellite Programme — an exhibition series that highlights single art works from the imaginary collection in specific locations.

Ultimately, underneath Whittlesea’s profound and all-encompassing examination of conceptual art and the mystical lies an undeniable romantic urge to confront and embrace the transient and material nature of life and its demise. A Breathing Bulb, despite its generative link to the eugenicist ideologies and eccentric beliefs embedded within Mazdaznan thought, is in its essence an introspective probe into how transcendence, the body and immateriality can intersect and come into being. Contrary to Ha’nish’s quest for eternal life and beauty, from the bulb’s first inhale to its last exhale, Whittlesea’s undulating work is a personal invocation that embraces the fatality of our existence and our fleeting present, one breath at a time.

— Excerpt Body Electric, Christina Li