GLUMBA SKZX
Ex Elettrofonica, Rome
January 13th – March 7th, 2015
Curated by Ben Crothers
Currently on display at Ex Elettrofonica, you'll find some seemingly insignificant objects, concepts and situations are challenged and disrupted in GLUMBA SKZX, through which the chance encounter is celebrated and the purposeless, banal and irrelevant are re-presented in highly imaginative ways.
The exhibiting artists reinterpret and re-evaluate pre-existing material and explore elements of everyday life which may often be overlooked: reimagining water as a luxurious, decadent beauty product (Adham Faramawy); purposefully enacting a series of common mistakes (Michael Hanna); video-recording a small wooden crate's journey through the postal delivery system (Shiro Masuyama); writing and illustrating a comics series based on a teenager's diary found in a gas-station bathroom (Esther Pearl Watson); expensively documenting items of low value (Theo Simpson); creating sculptures from childhood toys and household objects (Ben Craig); inventing a fictional gang based on an encounter on the New York subway (Fiona Larkin); photographing a fleeting moment in which the aesthetic cross-associations between a dog and a plastic garden chair became apparent (Locky Morris); and drawing inspiration from a children's book to create an adult-themed comic strip about a witch, her cat boyfriend, and an anthropomorphic owl (Simon Hanselmann).
GLUMBA SKZX embraces humour and the absurd in a multi-sensory environment in which photography, video and sculpture are exhibited alongside comic books, toys and second-hand clothing, which demand our attention and consideration just as much as the more readily acceptable forms of contemporary art on display. Audiences are urged to reconsider that which would not ordinarily be exhibited in a contemporary art gallery, faced with misspelt tattoos, playful canines, plastic banana holders, and a drug-addicted witch. Like the exhibition title itself, meaning often lies where one may not expect, taking us by surprise, making us smile, and changing our perspective.
Featuring works by: Ben Craig; Adham Faramawy; Michael Hanna; Simon Hanselmann; Fiona Larkin; Shiro Masuyama; Locky Morris; Theo Simpson; and Esther Pearl Watson.
Read more about the exhibit here in the ATP Diary (in Italian and French).
Vicolo Sant'Onofrio 10-11 ROMA
Hours: From Tuesday to Friday 16.00 – 20.00
Saturday by appointment
Sunday and Monday closed