Casus/belli
Nick Gordon
Keiran Gordon
Exhibition runs 18 – 28 February, 2016
Opens Wednesday 17 February, 6 – 8pm
Casus/belli
True to its Latin origins (meaning literally, “a case for war”), this exhibition will certainly be a one of artistic conflict in both technical and analytical respects.
Two brothers, Keiran and Nick Gordon, are each showing a variety of works that sit in stark contrast with one another and are characteristic of each artist’s approach.
Opens Wed 17 February, 6 – 8pm
Runs 18 – 28 February 2016
Nick Gordon wanted to paint as a way to better understand what he was studying after a University Medal and a PhD in History. Unlike his brother, who is interested in seeing what emotions his work evokes, Nick adopts a more meditative approach.
In this exhibition, Nick presents two different strands to his work. The first, an exploration of language and narrative through the motifs in Homer’s Odyssey, uses form and geometric abstraction to call to mind various environmental and plot points throughout the myth.
The second plays upon the use of symbolism in art and can probably best be described in the artists’ own words, “Still life with condoms, for example, plays on the symbols of the Dutch Golden Age, when still life emerged as in independent genre. These works typically contrast the passing pleasures of life – flowers, fruit, a lavishly well-laid table replete with imported porcelain and silverware…
‘Why?’ A question often asked of Keiran Gordon, not just by those who view his works but usually himself.
Constantly trying to depict the world as he sees it through his own anxiety, Keiran is as aware as his audience that the cohesive cultural touchstones that litter his work are often as puzzling (upon closer inspection) as they are affirming. This is a consistent theme running through both the content and medium of his works, pushing from Star Trek to spray paint.
Keiran isn’t afraid to mash ideas together with the same mad-genius-like-reverence and hyper-sexuality as an adolescent Freud popping heads off Barbies to replace them with Action Man’s. His works reveal a humorous look at a confused society consuming itself in a desperate struggle for identity and self-worth.
The second strand of Nick’s work comes from his interest in the use of symbolism in art. Still life with condoms, for example, plays on the symbolism of Dutch Golden Age still lifes, in which the fleeting but lavish pleasures of life are contrasted to more mundane emblems of present anxieties, picked up in the throw-away objects in Nick’s work.Other pieces, such as #nofilter, play on ancient associations between fruit and sexualised parts of the human body, and mimic the methods used in digital reproduction to simplify or ‘enhance’ an image for consumption.