EXHIBITIONS / GULF

29.07.2010 to 21.08.2010

Denial runs deeply through contemporary culture. This denial is built into our daily lives and is an essential to maintaining the status quo. It is not born of apathy or disinterest but an active and dynamic process that requires effort and attention to allow it to perpetuate itself. It is a defensive tactic that allows lives to proceed with a brittle sense of comfort.
The sculptures and prints that make up Gulf emit a sense of vulnerability and despair, paranoia and fortification. The work draws on and combines a range of contemporary images that function as present day echoes of a more optimistic time. Viewed through the lens of contemporary culture they seem more concerned with self-interest and wilful isolation. Gulf critically examines contemporary disconnection.
For Stuart Bailey, a belief in alarmist labels (which have become ideologies in themselves) is equated with intoxication -- of being stoned by political influence. Dealing primarily with imagery and the metaphorical implications of the abyss/the boundless landscape and the signpost, Bailey reflects upon the ways in which the idea of 'future' is an unsteady terrain: a dystopia. Recent work employs images of Naturalists and symbolic references to nudists. This work depicts this group as mocked for their utopian ideals and perhaps even pitied for their vulnerability and naivety. In the same work Bailey uses various examples of camouflage as it relates to militarism -- camouflaged figures haunt a desert landscape, suggesting imminent doom. These works pit almost equal opposite examples of 'blind faith' against each other, in order to hint at the misplaced bravado required for pursuing optimism.
Amita Kirpalani

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