Dis-ease

Gallery Artists, Curated by Chloé Wolifson

15 November - 20 December 2008

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Dis-ease

Most people know a Goldilocks or two – those for whom everything seems just right. But for the rest of us it’s usually a case of the porridge being too cold or too hot. Things seem to be wrong more often than they are right. There is some irony in the idea that normality is difficult to attain. Moments of embarrassment and failure dot the landscapes of everyone’s life. Dis-ease provides an unwelcome opportunity to see what it’s like to walk into one of these situations, instead of around them as instinct would dictate. The works in Dis-ease provide glimpses into the potential dark side of human behaviour, pushing into uneasy territory, testing reactions through staged and knowingly fictional encounters with discomfort. Some display a humour tempered by something disturbing. Many invite a double take with their first impression of innocence, while others simultaneously repel and compel with their awkwardness. The artist, by unsettling the subject matter, can unsettle the viewer, pushing values aside by pushing the expected aside.

When things are falling apart, as they are now, as they always seem to be one way or the other, two opposing strategies are called into play: to celebrate the inane and upbeat, or resign to the discomfort. Either trawl masochistically through the newspaper’s uncomfortable headlines or head straight for the lifestyle supplement. Dis-ease leaves room for improvement. If something’s a bit wrong, there’s an opportunity to make it right. But righting the wrongness in these works would be like a dog succeeding at chasing its tail. The works would lose their impetus and the viewer would lose the desire to look at them. Disrupting the status quo and moving the world along a bit usually requires some discomfort anyway. Art doesn’t have all the answers. It just reminds us that we never will.

Chloé Wolifson, November 2008