 Rented Reality, 2004 financial times, acrylic, spray paint and ink on canvas, 75 x 100 cm, 29 1/2 x 39 1/2 Gordon Cheung Hollow Sunsets "Essentially my paintings reflect the techno sublime, where information overwhelms the individual, causing a flickering perception of realities", says Cheung, who presents his first solo show at Houldsworth this Autumn. "Hollow Sunsets" are a way of seeing the world through the removed visions of cyberspace - virtual landscapes that collapse culture and distance. Influenced by his residencies in Japan, Pakistan and at the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester, Cheung continually re-evaluates the idea of place and identity as challenged through globalisation. The resulting images reflect the fascinating contradictions and complexities of a world were "Hello Kitty" and "Planet of the Apes" merge with palm trees and housing blocks. Using a complex mix of acrylic gel, spray paint, collage from the "Financial Times", computer manipulated imagery and Chinese ink drawing, Cheung creates surfaces as compelling as the array of images that haunt them. The splashes of smooth luminous spray paint jar against a dizzying flow of collaged numbers that merge with the black and white images of awe inspiring environments. The use of the "Financial Times" listings has a duel purpose; it at once offers a dense indecipherable background to the work and at the same time represents the growing global geographies of economic and technological communities. Punky images and meticulous collage make up Cheung's schizophrenic landscapes of colliding dream-worlds, that oscillate between the utopic and dystopic. As one approaches the landscapes the images dissolve into distinct parts each becoming strangely flat. The illusory surfaces reduce to planes of material and texture, a crucial move to fracture the seductively bizarre world Cheung creates, allowing us to reflect on the increasingly virtual environments that we inhabit. Exhibition: 11 October - 13 November 2004 Gallery hours: Tue-Fri 10am - 5.30pm, Sat 10.30am - 4pm Houldsworth Gallery 33-34 Cork Street UK-London W1S 3NQ Telephone +44 (0)20 7434 2333 Fax +44 (0)20 7434 3636 Email gallery@houldsworth.co.uk www.houldsworth.co.uk |
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