Black Rat Projects presents Giles Walker The Balloon Seller and Other Tragedies at Gallery 223

About

Black Rat Projects are delighted to present ‘The Balloon Seller and Other Tragedies’, a new body of work by kinetic scrap artist Giles Walker at Gallery 223. The show will take place from 4th – 14th December 2014 at the Lower Marsh space.

The ‘Bird-figure’ that has become synonymous with much of Giles Walker’s recent work is freed from the cage and is now presented interacting with various scenes collaged behind it. The resulting work is more two-dimensional than seen in Walker’s previous shows but is still instantly recognisable. The same dark humour prevails throughout, as the artist plays with the contradictions at work in our collective make-up. Contradictions that never give us the easy life we desire for fear we would die of boredom. Walker says:

“Every hour of the day we are bombarded with lies... I find that there are so many different kinds of lies and varying degrees of ‘truth’ that it is hard to remember what truth actually means or feels like. Truth has become something that is hard to recognise. You think you’ve found it and then, bang, something takes it away again. And then, of course, someone else’s truth is often not your truth... In this work I am not trying to expose these lies...for they are as old as the hills and tired. I am just adding my own lies (the images I have stolen in order to exploit) and re-telling them. Hoping that, in the process, some common ground is discovered... common ground in which we can recognise and share a truth.”

The new work will be hung around Walker’s seminal kinetic installation The Last Supper, which will be the last chance to see the technological masterpiece until it starts a 6-month residency at The Science Museum in 2016.

October 2014