 Jock Mooney funland was no more Jock Mooney is sculptor, drawer and performer. For his exhibition Downstairs at Gimpel Fils, Jock will install his ongoing project "Inventory", a bombardment of hand crafted small-scale sculptural objects. Comprising over 1,000 individual pieces, "Inventory" incorporates familiar images from mythology, religious iconography, art history, popular culture, and everyday life. Juxtaposing images from different sites and contexts Mooney questions the hierarchies into which visual culture is categorised. Problematising scales of value, Mooneys sculptural version of Sandro Botticellis "Birth of Venus" stands alongside a gingerbread house, a bust of the Virgin Mary crying red blood tears and items reminiscent of Happy Meal gifts or Kinder Surprise toys. Mooneys work has been discussed in terms of the carnavalesque: folly, excess and the mocking of established norms and codes of behaviour. Challenging the distinctions between high, low and popular forms of visual material, Mooney works as a satirist, commenting on the folly of contemporary society. He utilises humour as a subversive tool that can be understood as defying a world of gloss and sheen. Much of the humour here is adolescent - about sex, farting, and booze, acting as a reminder that at base level, everyone is the same despite pompous claims of being civilised or cultured. The vulgar excesses of contemporary disposable culture are replicated in Mooneys work, swamping the exhibition space while simultaneously highlighting the banal horror of our Ikea society. Jock Mooney studied at the Edinburgh College of Art. Since graduating in 2004, he has exhibited regularly, including solo shows in Newcastle and Glasgow. His work was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Show in 2006. Exhibition: 22 February - 24 March 2007 Gallery hours: Mon-Fri 10 am - 5.30 pm, Sat 11 am - 4 pm Gimpel Fils 30 Davies Street GB-London, W1K 4NB Telephone +44 20 7493 2488 Fax +44 20 7629 5732 Email info@gimpelfils.com www.gimpelfils.com |
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