PRESS RELEASE

March 2015

John Costi

JOHNNYS
TRASH

MONEY

28th March 10th April

Private View
Friday 27th March, 6.30pm 9.30pm

Light Eye Mind are proud to present Trash Money, the debut
UK solo exhibition by John Costi.
Trash Money is a 2 week tripartite relational performance
between artist, artefacts and participants. Costis dynamic
improvisation and risk taking styles are experienced through
the performance of spontaneous dialogue and tangential
displays employing his eclectic hoard of treasured artefacts.
Costi has defined the gallery as an adaptable and
unpredictable environment.
Throughout the two weeks, participants will be invited as
part of a serial schedule of inter-relational performances in
partnership with Costi, to utilise and redefine the relationship
of the artefacts thereby by creating contemporaneous
sculptures to stand in the gallery until the next encounter,
thereby renewing the exhibition on an hourly basis.
The communications of story telling and the artists role in
sense-making lead to what Costi refers to as Culturemating
- artefacts and stories married together to reveal new
essences, ideas and aftermaths of performance. Colour,
shape, form, sentiment and function dictate the joint
endeavours of artist and participant.

Light Eye Mind 176 Blackstock Road London N5 1HA

Costi views the duty to craft within his practice as a means

of delegation, the combined effort of others inform his work,
so that he becomes more an assistant than artist, facilitator
than creative.
Costis hand is hard to find, the outcome is handed over
to the visitor. The resulting pieces define their own status
as the work is never static, breaking the conventions of a
museum or gallery. The active participant is encouraged to
create each sculpture anew whilst the dialogue generates
definition. This way of practice alludes to the transient nature
of relationships.
Changing the relationship between artefacts changes the
nature of their past and current status. Consequently, what
were plinths are now paintings, a painting now screens,
screens now sculptures, sculptures now props and so on. All
of the work can change at any moment and will do so many
times throughout the two weeks durational performance.
In Culturemating, Costi finds peace. Not only does he map
his life with these objects he treats them as situations,
people and possibilities. Balance is achieved in much of
his stacked sculptures to illustrate direct paralells to life.
None of the sculptures are or will be fixed - If you move one
artefact out of sync the others may come crashing down
a metaphor for the knock-on effects for how our current
actions define our future stories.
For more information: info@lighteyemind.com lighteyemind.com

ARTIST BIO
John Costi
Born in London 1987, John Costi is a Central Saint
Martins graduate. After a spiritual awakening during
a 6-year prison sentence Costi sought to make sense
of the world around him through art. Working mostly in
performance, sculpture and installation, Costis practice
is informed by chance and experience. Always within
the social sphere the work is often ephemeral, living
on through documentation.

Recent shows include My Darling Johnny as part of the

G-Shock Sessions at G-Shock East, Some Unchartered
Event at Science Gallery with Resonance FM, A Fete
Worse Than Death with Red Gallery, Auto Biography
and Animism: An Audience with Johnny Costi at The
Copeland Space and Johnnys PicNMix with
Whoa Now Gallery, Copenhagen.

Selected Works

Trash Money installation detail, 2015

Man vs. Art video installation, 2015

Opening times
Tuesday
3pm 5.30pm
Wednesday 2pm 4.30pm
Thursday
5pm 7.30pm
Friday
7pm 9.30pm
Saturday
2pm 4.30pm
Sunday
3pm 5.30pm
Please visit our website to
book a performance slot.

Light Eye Mind 176 Blackstock Road London N5 1HA

For more information: info@lighteyemind.com lighteyemind.com