Liverpool artwork of the day – Tuesday December 18 2007. ‘Five recycled viral ships from Gonzalez-Torres’ by Barbara Jones in the International Gallery, Slater St. until December 22 2007
Barbara Jones deals in the subtle propaganda of peace, to entice the viewer with the weapon of aesthetic can be as effective as any bullet. Barbara trips up the hearts and minds and raises an agenda of tolerance and understanding. The light on the water can be as valuable as any sledge hammer breaking down the door.
The ‘viral’ is at the heart of ‘Five recycled viral ships from Gonzalez-Torres’. Barbara has taken five posters from a Gonzalez-Torres endless giveaway stack ‘untitled’ 1991 in the US pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale 2007. The printed poster depicts a photograph of an ocean surface cast in the blackest light. The posters dimensions are 98 cm x 115 cm and are blank on the reverse.
During the entire Biennale thousands of posters have left the pavilion with their new owners and infected thousands of new environments, homes, offices, schools and colleges. Many of the oversized souvenirs only reached as far as the waste bin area approximately 100 meters away from the pavilion. Barbara’s recycled version has made it across Europe to Liverpool, where they have been transformed into origami ships.
The ships may represent the travelling of migration of ideals, cultures and people, the exchange of reasoning. They may convey common languages of peace and harmony, values or justice and threads of universal understanding. A ship can be a vessel to transport the terrified fleeing exile, a ship of adventure to discover uncharted lands and waters or a platform to release weapons of destruction for conflict and battle.
The recycling of social makeup within our land or our planet is a constant debate which for centuries has evoked emotional discussion through the perception of fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the new, fear of change.
‘Rags To Riches’ from 13 December until 22 December 2007.
Opening hours are Thur-Sat 12pm – 5pm, or by appointment. Contact Colin Serjent on 077 5952 5075.
Artists taking part are Nathan Pendlebury, Barbara Jones, Sue Milburn, Colin Serjent, Jane Fairhurst, Leon Jakeman, Elizabeth Willow, Richard Ashworth, Beccy Williams, Jon Nash, John O’Neill, Steve Gent, Nicole Bartos and Nicola Fitzsimmons.
For more information about Red Dot go to
www.red-dotexhibitions.co.uk
