Avatar of Sacred Discontent

Curated by Wolfe Lenkiewicz & Flora Fairbairn

21.09.07 - 20.10.07

Venue: 9 Hillgate, 9 Hillgate Street, Notting Hill Gate, London W8 7SP

Avatar of Sacred Discontent, opening at 9 Hillgate, is an exhibition of painting, sculpture, photography, drawing and installation by some 30 artists that explores and exposes the darker side of human nature. The works featured are infused with unsettling and ominous undertones.  Themes explored range from the human psyche and man’s self-destructive tendencies to the tumultuous political climate in which we live.

Being microcosms of a larger world, we are the very incarnations, or Avatars, of a sacred discontent that seems inherent in contemporary society. Whilst wealth divides those who can afford from those who can’t, the very nature of our society provokes consumerist addiction.

Initially inspired by Fritz Lang’s film Doctor Mabuse (a name that derives from the French word ‘m’abuse’), Avatar of Sacred Discontent confronts its audience with issues that most would prefer to ignore.

Highlights from the exhibition include Gerry Judah’s magnificent and apocalyptic 3-D painting that explores the visual, emotional and physical effects of conflict in epic miniature; Alastair Mackie’s cloying sculpture of the human heart moulded out of the components of a wasp’s nest: wood pulp and wasp spit; Annie Kevans’ masterful and haunting portrait of Nicolae Ceausescu that revisits her much-acclaimed series Boys, where evil world leaders are depicted as children; Tessa Farmer’s intricate, gothic installation of fairy-like creatures fashioned painstakingly from insect wings and tree roots which hover carnivorously around a dead sparrow; Polly Morgan’s taxidermied chick is tucked up delicately and tragically limp in a matchbox that makes for both a bed and a coffin for La Petite.

Artists:

David Birkin, Rut Blees Luxemburg, Jose Maria Cano, Oliver Clegg, Tobias Collier, Shezad Dawood, Tessa Farmer, Nadine Feinson, James P Graham, Alex Hamilton, Henry Hemming, Gerry Judah, Annie Kevans, Tatsuya Kimata, Liane Lang, Wolfe Lenkiewicz, Peter Lewis, Alastair Mackie, Goshka Macuga, Emma McNally, Seboo Migone, Polly Morgan, Orlando Mostyn-Owen, Benedetto Pietromarchi, Ilona Sagar, Hilary Koob-Sassen, Petroc Sesti, Conrad Shawcross, Jason Shulman, Valerie Stahl von Stromberg, Louise Stern, Amikam Toren and Takayuki Yamamoto

Review in Frieze

Avatar of Sacred Discontent in Financial Times (Download)

Avatar of Sacred Discontent in Vogue (Download)

Review of Avatar of Sacred Discontent, Port Eliot, in londonart.co.uk