About
An exhibition bringing together the authentic experiences of six artists who share a bold and uncompromising attitude to life. Exploring the dynamic forces of inherent ritual and webs of obsessive thinking each individual tells their story from the shadow of untapped potential within the self.
Bringing into play thought patterns, the power of intention and various methods we employ in an attempt to bridge the gap between circumstances within our control and the realm of the unknowable beyond our control; Ritual & Obsessive Thought seeks to unbind the bound and shed a healing light on our hidden compulsive nature.
Located in the heart of bustling Earl's Court, Gallery 286 is a private house gallery specialising in salon-style viewings.
In keeping with the theme of the evening, there will be an interactive improvised ambient musical underscore by Noko (Apollo 440, Magazine) on electric guitar and delay loop system; providing a continual, repetitive and perpetually mutating sonic environment for your enhanced enjoyment of the works on show.
Exhibition evening event is THURSDAY 25 APRIL 18:30 - 20:30
For viewing appointments throughout the day call 07960 027470
DEBORAH GRIFFIN
The root of all ritual and obsession lies in repetition. Repetition is a form of change. Obsessive repetition transforms the commonplace into something unhinged and escalates normality into hysteria, elevating it to the level of the truly religious.
Touching on numerology as the alchemical root of all that is universal, my current work explores obsession and ritual through it's relationship to symbolism, human anatomy and the primordially eternal : love.
GAYNOR PERRY
Through various means, I explore some of the recurring themes and indelible thoughts governing my waking hours. Looking for ways out of persistent and cyclic ideas; I hope to find a safe exit.
Daily rituals, such as bathing, take on symbolic status; a cleansing, not only of the body, but of the psyche. Ià¼m urged to purify, purge and redress those intangible inner workings; a seemingly impossible task, however, I am compelled to try.
GAVIN BRICK
My portraits capture the essence of despair and longing born out of unrequited love and an acute shyness; manifesting itself in evocative and surreal representations of the very people who unwittingly caused these feelings. In the throes of my obsession they are held captive and possessed, if only in two dimensions.
DENNIS DA SILVA
For this exhibition I have created a short video piece, à»Apophanistaâ½à¼. Scenes from my childhood are played out in a tableaux involving my mother (the oracle), my father (a gangster) and myself, depicting tragic and not so tragic incidents overshadowed by my mother's inherited use of ancient Kabbalistic (practical) magic, and an obsessive consultation of Napoleon's Oraculum.
The choice of actors and aesthetics enable me to detach from these memories that are far too personal to share literally. It is also an ongoing attempt to reconcile these past events by creating future encoded memories in my role as filmmaker. It's accompanied by text from Napoleon's Book of Fate, and Les Litanies de Satan by Baudelaire and visually encoded with rituals that hold the clues to the past as well as the future.
PAM NEWALL
Etching is of itself an obsessive process. Making the plate, wiping the ink, soaking the paper and printing the image.
Printmaking is for me a way of seeing things more consciously and less casually, of indexing daily experience and controlling the chaos of incessant observation.
I would like my prints to record the marginal and to merit the viewer wondering about them. I try to make images that resonate with some earlier activity, that catch things at the edges.
SARAH ANGLISS
At first glance, âMorning at five minutes to midnight' looks like the paraphernalia from an ordinary 8:00AM ritual. But the clock on this teasmade is set to just before midnight and the minute hand is constantly twitching, embodying our obsession with catastrophe on the news. It's scouring Twitter for keywords in order to divine the geopolitical situation.
When it deduces an increased likelihood of a terrorist attack, nuclear war, asteroid impact or other disaster, the hands move a little closer to midnight. The perfect accessory for the news obsessive, this machine worries about the news for you while you sleep. And if the clock reaches midnight, the teasmade will silently pour 10 grammes of barbiturate powder into your morning drink. This exhibit is inspired by my observations of 24 hour news, Twitter and the clock on the cover of The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
