Thursday, June 28, 2007

Darren Banks "GODDESS" : British & European Legs - Outpost, Norwich



Darren Banks
"GODDESS"

Workplace Gallery is pleased to present GODDESS a new installation by Darren Banks

commissioned as part of British and European Legs organised by OUTPOST in Norwich.

July 2nd –21st, private view Sunday 1st July 2007

http://www.norwichoutpost.org/ for further information

The centrepiece of the exhibition (which gives its name to the installation) is a sculpture made from a carefully arranged jumble of second-hand plastic domestic objects circa 1970-1980. When these objects were manufactured they represented the future, the ultra – modern, a world of labour saving devices and beige plastic living. For Banks ‘Goddess’ represents a maquette of a monument constructed to signify new beginnings, renewal and improvement looking towards the reappraisal of modernist sculpture and signifying a need to recover a sense of freedom and expression.

Alongside 'Goddess' is a new video work entitled ‘It’s Not The End of The World’. The result of another attempt to start afresh, this musical-disaster-movie is made up of an assemblage of clips from Banks’ own video collection; 'Blue Planet', 'Meteor', 'Secrets of the Ocean Realm' and 'Contact' among others come together to create a life-cycle which Banks toys with, destroys, and re-makes.

Both works are framed by ‘Their Fantastical Landscape’ a large billboard/wallpaper appropriated from the work of Roger Dean. Originally used as the inside gatefold to the album ‘Close to the Edge’ by 70s prog. Rock band ‘Yes’ the backdrop brings in a domestic fantasy into which the other works are given the opportunity of an entirely new context.

Darren Banks is represented by Workplace Gallery
www.workplacegallery.co.uk

OUTPOST's ambitious project contribution to Contemporary Art Norwich 2007, 'OUTPOST presents British & European Legs' - invites 10 artist led organisation - 5 UK & 5 European based - to visit Norwich during July & August to run temporary gallery/project spaces within the city centre. The organisations have each been asked to reflect OUTPOST's core exhibition programming approach, by presenting the work of a single artist.

The invited organisations and the artists presenting are:

JULY 2nd -21st (UK)
The Royal Standard, Liverpool - Sean Hawkridge
S1 Artspace, Sheffield - Torsten Lauschmann
Workplace Gallery, Gateshead - Darren Banks
Bureau, Salford - Dave Griffiths
Moot, Nottingham - Jonty Lees

AUGUST 2nd - 21st (European)
F.a.i.t. Krakow - R.E.P.
Transmission Gallery, Glasgow - Lotte Gertz
General public, Berlin - Erika Mustermann
Het Wilde Weten, Rotterdam - Niels Post
Les Complices*, Zurich - Edit Oderbolz

'British & European Legs' Symposium Saturday 28th July - a day of short presentations by the participating organisations and exhibiting artists.