Catalogue relating to an exhibition, 2001
Published by: Whitechapel
Year published: 2001
Number of pages: 32
ISBN: 0845 88 125 5

Catalogue produced to accompany Tariq Alvi’s first UK solo exhibition, which took place at Whitechapel Art Gallery, 12 January - 4 March 2001. This catalogue provided a substantial introduction to the practice of a British-born artist whose time was split between living in London and living in the Netherlands. Profusely illustrated, the catalogue’s Foreword was written by  Whitechapel Art Gallery Director Catherine Lampert and Curator Andrea Tarsia, and featured an essay by Jean Fisher.

Contents as follows:

Forword, Whitechapel Art Gallery Director Catherine Lampert and Curator Andrea Tarsia

Provisional Acts, essay by Jean Fisher

List of illustrations

Biography/Bibliography

As mentioned, the catalogue was extensively illustrated.

From the Foreword: “The rather grand, day-lit spaces of the Whitechapel have posed a challenge to Alvi: how to present work tha has already lived in private spaces, in bed-sits and corridors, above fireplaces and wedged between cracks. Whereas the relaxed, non-conformist mood generated by Whitechapel’s visitors, and the chaos of the High Street, appeals to a generation of artists that operate outside commercial and marketing constraints. We are delighted that Tariq has responded to the challenge of his first solo exhibition in the UK with such energy and enthusiasm. He has engaged the attention and the imagination of all here at the Whitechapel.”

From Fisher’s text: “Alvi’s idiosyncratic manipulation of images, the massing and proliferation of material to near-saturation point, often on the edge of sliding out of control, are acts whose very uncontainability threaten the forces of law and order.”