S. Mark Gubb: How Should I Live? (Maybe That's Not The Question)

About

Taking its title from a line in the film Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders, S. Mark Gubb's exhibition encourages us to explore the nature of our existence by probing our ambitions, beliefs and values, asking us to make choices as we navigate our way through the gallery. Through a series of large-scale text pieces, visitors are invited to reflect upon aspects of their own morality and the impact that this can have upon the world and those around them. Gubb employs a calm and repetitive aesthetic to clearly convey the authoritative messages and merge the non-specific and varied cultural references into a single yet ambiguous voice. Some of the words are the artist's own; others are derived from song lyrics, film dialogue, and public service announcements. Pura Vida (pure life, easy going, cool) is used in Costa Rica as an expression of positivity, but also refers to a concept, which suggests that a church, a bar and a football pitch is all that is required to form a town. This simplistic and somewhat naive notion underpins the exhibition but the artist has one eye on life's inevitabilities and complexities. His life improving and affirming suggestions are presented with an air of reserved optimism.