John Lawrence: Sickly Revelations*

About

John Lawrence presents Sickly Revelations* in Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art’s Gallery 2 space. The exhibition tours from Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown in Wales and Project Number, London, where it was presented earlier this year.  

Encompassing film, objects, printing and publishing, Lawrence’s practice focuses on our mediated experiences of the contemporary world. Sickly Revelations* articulates how we communicate ideas through the production of cultural objects with a particular focus on movies, gaming and online platforms.

Central to Sickly Revelations* is a film in three parts including a soundtrack by musician Mark Good. Respectively titled, The Observer, The Receiver and The Transmitter, the piece incorporates the banal observations of an unseen narrator, focusing on his home cinema and audio/visual equipment that can be seen strewn across his floor. 

Lawrence aims to question our engagement with, or detachment from, the ‘real world’ and our shifting position within an increasingly networked, technologically infiltrated system. Alongside the film, a series of posters will be installed throughout the Arts Centre and Sunderland City Centre incorporating enigmatic phrases. Beginning with the words 'Some people...' they appear to list both the symptoms of some self-diagnosable contemporary condition at the same time as referring to the banality found in everyday life.

Unique editions of these posters will be for sale for £50 from the gallery during the exhibition.

Sickly Revelations* will also be accompanied by a new publication bringing together writing featuring contributions from Dr Cadence Kinsey, John Bloomfield, Rachel Wilson, Niki Russell and the artist.

Parallel to his practice John Lawrence also runs After/Hours/Drop/Box - a commissioning platform at the intersection of music, video and live performance, Or maybe it’s the same for everyone — a print publication for artists’ short fiction and experimental writing and Oh - a publishing imprint with artist Mat Jenner.

John Lawrence (B. 1981) graduated from the Royal Academy Schools in 2010. Selected recent and upcoming exhibitions and projects include The Happy Hypocrite #ACCUMULATOR_PLUS (Book Works), Work/Leisure Residency (in association with Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool), X 308: SPACE, SITE AND THE SCREEN (Big Screen Southend in association with Focal Point Gallery), Dry Riser(Solo show, One Thoresby Street, Nottingham), Super Woofer (Matt's Gallery), Sunscreen (New Art Exchange, Nottingham), Spectrum: Survey of Artists’ Moving Image (Breese Little, London), Residency in a Record Store (with Pangaea Sculptors' Centre and Flashback Records, London), Open School East (Associate Artist, London), The Existence of Flamethrowers in Your Street (126, Galway), Oriel Davies Open Overall Winner (Newtown, Wales), Pre Owned: Looks Good Man (Cell Project Space)

*Life is brittle // REAL