Decoy

About

In an era characterized by tumult and flux, where boundaries between reality and simulation blur, the works of Cristian Avram, Eric Bainbridge, Simeon Barclay, Sooim Jeong, Rachel Lancaster and Miko Veldkamp emerge as poignant explorations of the hidden self, fluid identities, and the deceptive nature of the world. As we adapt to a rapidly changing environment dominated by social media, AI, surveillance, and an increasing loss of privacy, these artists employ various strategies to negotiate an increasingly hostile environment, including camouflage, mimesis, masquerade, and evasion, to reveal fragments of truth beneath our constructed existence.

Simeon Barclay navigates complex cultural histories and the intricacies of identity, combining appropriated imagery, text, and sculpture. Drawing from his experiences in Northern England's manufacturing industry, he contrasts industrial life's stark realities with aspirational glamour from sources such as Vogue to address class, masculinity, race and identity.

Eric Bainbridge's playful assemblages of found objects and everyday materials subvert conventional hierarchies. By dismantling traditional sculpture foundations, Bainbridge exposes our need for order and coherence in the absurdity of an inherently chaotic world. The exhibition presents two works from Bainbridge's seminal 1980s large-scale faux-fur sculpture series.

Miko Veldkamp's lush botanical dreamscapes represent the ever-shifting boundaries between self and other, the familiar and the foreign. Drawing from his experiences of cultural dislocation and displacement, Veldkamp's paintings function as ‘pseudo self-portraits’ that weave together enigmatic cultural references through fluid, translucent layers to explore identity, memory and the multiplicity of self.

Cristian Avram's timeless compositions invite us to grapple with the paradoxes of existence: the merging of past and present and the duality of progress as both an illusion and a catalyst. His paintings capture desolate landscapes and domestic interiors, where human presence is felt through the shadows and reflections of people and the seemingly insignificant objects they have left behind. Avram's scenes, influenced by his experience living in a nation where remnants of the Soviet past coexist with a burgeoning capitalist society, allow them to coexist in dynamic tension.

Sooim Jeong's minimal oil paintings point to the ephemeral nature of memory and the delicate balance between preservation and obliteration. Jeong’s attempts at reconstructing a combination of past memories into the quotidian places around her are contrasted against significant events from her past, sometimes of a brutal or traumatic nature. Through the abstraction of human figures and the use of metaphoric imagery, Jeong captures the essence of our own fragmented experiences, echoing the dialectical relationship between past and present.

Rachel Lancaster's cinematic paintings embody the inherent tension between the familiar and the uncanny. Lancaster's paintings represent detailed fragments of a greater narrative. The process of remaking these images in paint is used to draw out the uncanny and the potential psychological charge within source imagery. By transforming photographic 'stills' into enigmatic oil paintings, Lancaster invites the viewer to confront the constructed nature of reality and the elusive nature of truth.