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Exhibited at Culterim Backshop Gallery, Berlin, 25/04/24 - 28/04/24
"As our generation grapples with a growing sense of disillusionment and disconnection, the allure of escapism and nostalgia have become coping mechanisms in a society experiencing cultural exodus. London, like many other modern cities, has become an uninhabitable space for culture to thrive. Art and community have been pushed aside by commercialism; and any counterculture is quickly stolen, washed, repackaged and sold back to us by big business. Visions of the city’s past come to us in faded naive memories, as we escape via the internet, nature and chemicals to fill the void. As more and more individuals try to break free from the constraints of linear society, they are pushed back and trapped, left dreaming.…. This Place Is Not Home.
London based artists Dylan Coates and Travis Barton have collaborated to bring past works and current experimentation together to create a new multidisciplinary installation, site-specific to the city of Berlin and the Backshop gallery space. Both of their practices are heavily influenced by the cultural geography of their own environments. Hailing from Lewisham, South London, their works up until this point have been a reflection of the area’s unique but changing landscape. Now exhibiting these themes and ideas outside of their birthplace, a new context and meaning emerges from the work, and explores the relationships between London and Berlin."
Room 1 - 'Borough Of Sanctuary' A symbol of hostile architecture stands in the centre of the space, distorting a merging of images made up of 50 A3 prints. Borough Of Sanctuary explores the relationship between the sister boroughs of Lewisham and Charlottenburg through composition reminiscent of post-vandalism and mural-like imagery. Faded memories are turned into an exclusion zone by fencing commonly used for redevelopment works and confinement; recontextualized by the dream-like background of attempted escape.
Room 2 - 'Fade Away' A triptych portrait of life adrift in the post-industrial peripheries, ‘Fade Away’ sketches out three seemingly disconnected moments on a day and a night in the deep south of London. A young man, off-the-grid,wanders the backstreets in search of something. Three girls reach their limit and act to break free. And a worker, far from home, finds herself something like a role in the city. ls it a prison? Fade Away is a vivid picture of isolation and the experience of feeling lost in a changing landscape: Fade Away is the first video collaboration between Travis Barton and Dylan Coates, a stark exploration of broken dreams, alienation and disenfranchisement through a lens that combines both artists unique visual languages and style.
