GALLERY46 at BARGEHOUSE, presenting work by Duggie Fields, Sean Dower, David James.
Through multidisciplinary architecture artists explore the notion of identity within the urban environment, understanding of the resident and of the outsider, what it means to belong and what belonging actually means. Duggie Fields’ digital films reflect themes of iconography present in his paintings of the last five decades. Sean Dower’s video performance, a real-time sequence where the artist tries to maintain his balance, David James ethereal images explore relationships between personal experience and the history of art.
DUGGIE FIELDS
I DON’T KNOW WHAT THIS IS
Digital film and music artworks spanning ten years
Artist Duggie Fields’ digital film works and accompanying music reflect themes present in his vibrant, Post Pop paintings of the last five decades, capturing elements of popular culture in iconography referencing; art, fashion, film, music and celebrity, a knowing cynicism shares space in a surreal panorama with his strangely optimistic and up beat theatre.
A body of audio / visual travelogues inspired by / and steeped in / his unique life experience.
SEAN DOWER
SPIRIT LEVEL 1993
Black and white video with ambient sound. 11.42 min (looping)
In this real-time sequence for monitor, the artist tries to maintain his balance with the glass from a spirit level attached to his forehead.
Initially the image looks motionless, but when the viewer looks closer, the motion of the bubble in the glass vial becomes mesmeric and the impossibility of absolute stillness becomes apparent.
DAVID JAMES
THE END OF CIVILISATION
A series of drawings and paintings that explore the relationship between personal experience and the history of art.
The drawings are the result of a meticulous technique he uses to modify the reproductions of masterpieces by artists such as Velázquez and Rembrandt, torn from the pages of vintage art books. This seemingly destructive act abstracts iconic works from the history of art to the point of oblivion, but in doing so James creates new images with new identities.
