Abject Failures

Abject Failures: Imogen Taylor, Sam Clague, George Watson, Dan Arps & Campbell Patterson; Curated by Chloe Geoghegan | Foyer & Alcove

17 November 2018 - 10 February 2019

Every month, a millennial population the size of Russia actively contributes to Instagram. The glare of 'now' burns through flat, backlit blue-white screens glowing hot with a spectacular immediacy. It is fast, flat, filtered and scrollable. It is forced through an Internet sieve that compresses time, borders, history and memory. Today, contemporary art is smooth and low res. It is projected and played. But is it a success, this new way in which we experience art? Or is loosing the tactility of art ultimately an abject failure?

Slumping candle wax, sagging spray paint, bulging polyurethane, lumpy paint on canvas, are all processes rich in an ambiguity and traditional notions of the abject, that de-flatten and re-enrich contemporary art. This exhibition brings together new work by five emerging and mid-career artists from around Aotearoa who push material boundaries, using a mixed media approach to resist competitive image ecologies and turn contemporary notions of the abject upside down.