Apocalypse Now

24th July-8th August 2009

Artists include; Amos, Govinda Azad, Morgan Beringer, Laura Collinson, Paul Cureton, Coris Evans, Sarah Harbridge, Andrew Hladky, Matthew Kelly, Fiona Long, Michelle Lord, Sam Meech & Pete Bamford, Mark Melvin, Laura Smith, Ronis Vaalam, Rupert White.

Curated by Joe McNulty and Joshua Tennant

Apocalypse Now will reflect on interpretations of the meaning of an Apocalypse today, and bring together artists from the U.K whose work deals with Apocalyptic themes, from a very contemporary viewpoint to reflect on a very human dilemma. Artists working with an array of media from painting and sculpture to multimedia works present a disparate standpoint on a unified theme. From the neon sculpture work of Mark Melvin to the intricate painting and drawing of Andrew Hladky and Paul Cureton and into poignant and moving video pieces of Sarah Harbridge, Apocalypse Now provides a core of activity and artwork that seeks to enlighten views on our termination.

Picture credits to Amy Goring and Minako Jackson

 

 

(top) The Opening night. We had a speicalissue of The Liverpool Arts Journal produced as a catalogue for the show, which came with a free CD or Tape curated by Joe and Josh. We served locusts (thanks to Ped Cebero) and zombie cake (wonderfully made by Clare Tennant) (above) as part of the TAXED event PASTHOFF, and of course, half a lake of Kronenburg

Andrew Hladky's incredible painting- painted using a toothpick. "It was not there". "It Was Not There' shows an irradiated landscape of multiple sunsets and horizons where primordial men and women face an apocalyptic invasion of giant black paint-worms. These worms are the most direct mark I can make with a paint tube, squeezed straight out into the image, but they immediately become characters in the drama "an irradiated landscape where primordial men and women face an apocalyptic invasion of giant black paint-worms".

   

Govinda Azad Sah mystical painting of cloud movement 'Absence of Sense': Absence of Sense is inspired from cloud movement. It took place in the empty space, some they bring life some they bring the disaster this is very similar with human mind some they are very noble and some time very Demon. That is hardly to understand as there is absence of sense. In general sense cloud most key part of climate change which we cannot control as it is human mind can stop being demon. It is beginning of Apocalypse.

Laura Collinson- 'Hawkiniranasaurinator T-500'.
If we are going to survive the end of the world, we need something to protect us and fight against zombies. I combined the brilliant brain of Stephen Hawking, the awesomeness of a terminator and the agility of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. I have therefore created the ultimate killing machine, the 'Hawkiniranasaurinator T-500'.

(below) Fiona Long - Post Consumer Material Culture II

In Long's imagined post apocalyptic scenario "After Day X" the resulting population will find objects from our time and wonder what to make of and from them. But what will this archaeology of the future tell us about our civilisation today. Along with our human drive to explore the past and present through collecting and assembling objects, there is another, just beyond survival, drive to paint. Looking into a possible future like this, with the future population looking back, in a sense brings us back to our present to make us examine and confront our world in a different way.

 

Sarah Harbridge- 'One Minute on Each of the Four Days before Her Death'
The simultaneous repetition of four sixty-second video sequences, contrasts not only to the actual moments having expired, but stands between the mass of unrecorded detail of life and the unknown future. Harbridge works with moving image/ sound or text, with deliberate reference to the function and properties of the medium, using subject matter from close at hand experience.
 

Coris Evans - Prey
The slightly unnerving narratives of Evan's work focus on my own overwhelming perception of mortality. Each installation allows the viewer to evaluate their own concept of death, the dead and the people who were once close to us but are no longer alive. By evaluating such sensitive issues in an open environment we are free to explore questions of taste, tact and the ethical responsibility as the role of the artist.'   

Paul Cureton- CERN
The CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear research) is the paradoxical space and place of both the objective and subjective melded with the uncanny and irrational, not to dissimilar to the 'hatcheries and conditioning units' of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. The CERN is the regulator of chaos through a mechanistic hyper real of particle acceleration: a networking hub of super computers stabilizing, magnetizing and colliding elementary particles deep underground in the search for the Higgs Boson. To discuss a modern futuristic psychological fear of the unknown of particle physics - the CERN is the real of fictional apocalyptic writers.
 

Rupert White- 'Apocalypse'

Much of White's work takes the landscape as its starting point, and some of his sculptures ask us to imagine having to survive in harsh or alien environments. 'Apocalypse' is intended to look like corporate lettering or a logo that has fallen or collapsed into an incoherent jumble of letters which has a tragic and pathetic quality

 

Laura Smith- 'Dead Handy' & 'For Zombie'

Smith imagines an area between domestic spaces and film sets, combining images and signs of horror movies and nightclubs with the comfortable language of furniture and interior design. This creates grotesque, fetish objects which provoke questions about the dialectical relationship between dystopian fantasy and consumerist culture 

  

Mark Melvin- 'It's OK'
OK is an informal term of approval, assent, or acknowledgment. When used to describe the quality of something, it denotes being fit for purpose or of a quality which is acceptable but not great, it can denote compliance, agreement, or formal approval. With this piece Melvin creates a flashing depiction of the hand gesture associated with the word. The work looks at what occurs when the sign or gesture is repeated indefinitely and how its sentiment changes through that continual repetition.

 

  

Michelle Lord- 'Future Ruins'
Inspired by author J G Ballard's literary visions of modernist architectural design and his prophetic views on the technological demise of the urban environment; Future Ruins is a photographic critique of the urban planning of the 1970's and Ballard's novels of the same period using hand made models and rear screen projection. Scenes based upon Ballard's apocalyptic narratives such as 'Ultimate City' or 'Concrete Island' are relocated within Birmingham. This was selected as Artwork of the week