Dylan Shipton: Punishment Park

About

LIMBO is pleased to present a new commission and UCA residency by artist Dylan Shipton. Punishment Park takes its title from Peter Watkins' 1971 faux-documentary, in which student protesters are imprisoned by the government (which declares a ‘state of emergency') and encouraged to take part in a death-race for their freedom, pursued, as part of a military training exercise, by the National Guard. By alluding to this film, Shipton seems to suggest that his ‘deconstruction' of the physical elements of painting — paint, stretcher, and support — has less to do with expanding the medium formally than exploring the possibilities of abstraction as political metaphor. Through subtle yet deliberate use of colour and simple materials, Shipton's works suggest a redeployment of institutional demarcation - prison uniforms, police tape, dazzle camouflage - within the vernacular architectural context of the commune or squat.