What We So Proudly Hail

About

Larry Achampong Daniel Edwards Wes Lang Javier Pinon Kon Trubkovich 17th April - 30th May Preview Evening: 23rd April 2009, 7-9pm The exhibition will showcase Daniel Edwards' controversial sculpture Michelle Obama's Makeover For America that depicts a bare-chested, Nerferti-esque Obama, adorned with White House iconography, who addresses the re-branding of a post-Bush America. "What so Proudly we Hail" will also feature the works of four artists whose works explore the nuances of American Culture and politics. Kon Trubkovich uses his license plate works to make commentary on multiple paradoxical planes, simultaneously representing a symbol associated with a facilitator of movement and freedom with a barcode that confines one within a system. The images serve as contemplations on the physical paradoxes within freedom and captivity, as well as a signifier of national history. Meanwhile, expounding the violence inherent in the America's sexual, racial and cultural customs as well as passion of his country's literary, artistic and political legacies, Wes Lang takes subject matter both canonical and vernacular at dead reckoning to expose the contradictions in the American vision. Javier Pinon presents a very different protagonist - the American Cowboy- who navigates his way through chaotic obstacle courses of chairs and chandeliers in intricately crafted collages that reflect Americans' tendencies, both as individuals and as a country, to cast their struggles as heroic conflicts. Finally Ghanian artist Larry Achiampong likens American politics to a Pac-Man game where politicians become characters. In his presidents series, he questions if the face and appearance of a politician really matters to their message and actions.