Red Herring

About

Red Herring is an exhibition that focuses on the truths behind all everyday practices, behaviours, attitudes and beliefs. Whether a smoke screen has been intentionally placed before us or inadvertently created, we can be distracted from real issues or even discouraged from thinking outside of the hegemonic actions that make up our cultures and societies.

The exhibition showcases work by Stephen Nulty and Raen Barnsley, who, using the approach of painting and drawing, use a layering aesthetic that enables truths to battle their way to the forefront of the image and be seen by its audience.

Nulty’s work addresses the theme of Red Herring by considering the West’s desensitisation of conflicts as a distraction from the suffering and brutalities of war, particularly in the Middle East. Nulty uses our consumption of glamourised scenes of warfare in films, games and phones to reveal how calm and impassive we have become to military practices, which succeed in falsifying our perceptions. Nulty believes that media representations of conflict equate to simulation, resulting in a disconnect from the reality of war.

Barnsley’s practice investigates the truth behind our everyday, accepted and ritualistic behaviours and beliefs. Believing that these aspects of our everyday lives are constructs that we have collectively created in an attempt to distract ourselves from an existential reality, Barnsley portrays these constructs as physical structures. Inside the structures are our ‘truths’, with the physical walls of the structure being the distraction from the real truths which exist on the other side of the wall.

The Island Gallery Space, entrance on Bridewell Street, Bristol, BS1 2LE

OPEN 12-5PM 12th – 16th June

Tuesday 12th June open until 9pm

Instagram: @stephenmnulty @raenbarnsley

Join the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/473082796448095/