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The participating artists would probably not claim to be political in any overt way, at least in their work, but all look at the psyche of the body politic
and reveal traces of disquiet and concern through an interest in, or reference to, technology. Rather like the little girl in the film ‘Poltergeist’, they
discern the faint echoes of failed past utopias through the conduit of a technological notion of ‘progress’.
These artists, who know better than to shout, are interested in these echoes, and it is this that the exhibition seeks to evoke. There is a real sense
of loss here, even when some of the work plays with optimism, or strikes a mischievous tone. Like Walter Benjamin’s angel, they look to the future
by facing the past, witnessing, “the storm we call progress”.
The exhibition’s title is taken from Terry Eagleton’s book After Theory in which he states in the eponymous first chapter: “There can be no falling
back on ideas of collectivity which belong to a world unraveling before our eyes”. Our need to want to fashion our future to our own desires, fills us
with both optimism and dread. As our hi-tech future promises us infinite possibilities, it leaves a gap filled with impending disappointment. It is a
disappointment through our sense of separation that is loaded with atomised pathos. It is to this gap that these artists look, where memories appear
flattened and shorter, as we are distracted by the heat of the present. This sense of amnesia, induced by the seduction of technology, becomes the
consequent politics of memory.
Art has historically always engaged with technology, from the camera obscura in the 18th century, to virtual art now. However, it is not the
technology itself that is necessarily interesting, but how it adds to the existing language of art, and offers it new meanings. Unlike Science Fiction,
which creates its own language of myths but acts as an allegory, here the myths are already embedded, and the allegory but a memory, a faint
pulse. The human is all but absent in much of the work, but its voice is all the louder because of it.
Fieldgate Gallery, 2012.
CGP LONDON
Southwark Park
London SE16 2UA
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (0)20 7237 1230
for further information and images, please contact: Vivien Harland: admin@cpglondon.org
Transport Underground: Canada Water on the Jubilee Line and the London Overground Line (Highbury & Islington to West Croydon section).
Journey times to Canada Water: From Canary Wharf 3 mins, from Whitechapel 8 mins, from Waterloo 8 mins, from Hoxton 11 mins, from Green
Park 13 mins. Buses: 1, 47, 188, 199, 225, 381, 395, P12, C10 all stop at Canada Water station. Canada Water station is seven minutes walk from
Cafe Gallery. Rail: South Bermondsey.
Supported by The Henry Moore Foundation.
| 13 Jun - 15 Jul 2012 A group exhibition curated by Fieldgate Gallery that looks at past trauma through the conduit of technology. 13 June – 15 July 2012, Wednesday – Sunday from 12 – 6pm. Preview: Sunday, 10 June from 3 – 5pm. |
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| presents |
