Absolutely Fabulous 2 - Nika Oblak and Primoz Novak

About

29 May — 4 July Special Preview Event 28th May 6 — 8 pm Late Night Opening Thursday 04 June and 02 July. Catalyst Arts presents the first solo show in the UK or Ireland for the internationally exhibited Slovenian artist cooperative of Nika Oblak and Primoz Novak. Oblak and Novak's practise spans film, photographic manipulations and installations and their pastiches of popular films like Pulp Fiction and Taxi Driver and the feats shown in the Guinness Book of World Records are characteristic of their light hearted approach. Their work investigates the influence of mass media on the individual living in a consumerist, gobalised society. Using the idiosyncracities of social interaction Oblak and Novak explore the issues with sensitivity and humour. For Absolutely Fabulous, Oblak and Novak will be presenting their photographic and video series We Did This And That, reconstructing absurd Guinness World Records. They aim to examine the obsession with success and fame in contemporary society, influenced by the mass communication media. In carefully constructed photographs and videos they appear to be record holders and confront the viewer with constructed categories of fiction and reality. Alongside this will be Shund and Cab Driver, frame by frame recreations of the trailers for Pulp Fiction and Taxi Driver, with all parts played by the artists. In this way they subject themselves to the influence of mass media, exploring the position of an individual as a passive consumer of monopolized, one way communicated media content, and materialize a common fascination with celebrities.