fool's paradise

About

“People look to escape into an intensification of the conditions of ordinary life, into a deliberate aggravation of those conditions: further from nature, nearer to artifice, to abstraction, to total pollution, to well above average levels of stress, pressure, concentration and monotony - this is the ideal of popular entertainment. No one is interested in overcoming alienation; the point is to plunge into it to the point of ecstasy. That is what holidays are for.”

- Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories

fool’s paradise considers the commodified aspiration and fetishism of the package holiday. Taking Casper David Friedrich’s iconic painting Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (c. 1818) as a point of departure, the artist positions the viewer as the lone wanderer trapped in the domestic dreariness of everyday routine; escaping instead into the realms of the mind.

A surreal dreamscape of sculptures playfully teeter between escapism and avoidance. The exhibition considers how culture is appropriated and manipulated into a symbol of wealth, marketing luxury ideals of paradise.

Bio:

Josh Wright (b. 1993) lives and works in London. He graduated with a BA Fine Art from Camberwell College of Arts (2016). In addition to his sculptural practice, he collaborates with fellow artist Guillaume Vandame operating under the collective Wright & Vandame.

Recent projects and exhibitions include: Pavilion of Change, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes (2018); Whitechapel Gallery Cafe, 1985-2007, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018); All of Us Will Be Gone, Gazelli Art House, London (2016); fig-2, ICA, London (2015).