IN THE GALLERY: SERIES 1
01
The Sons of Eldorado
Resin and 24kt Gold
Sculpture (x2)
02
Turritopsis Dohrnii
Oil on Canvas
Painting (x2)
03
Horns of Ebony
Plaster and 24kt Gold
Sculpture (x2)
04
Whiplash
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting (x2)
05
Renegade: The Odd One Out
Acrylic and Human Tooth on Paper
Painting (x2)
06
Flowers of The Desert
Black Stone in glass
Sclupture (x2
07
Karōshi: Dying to Live - Living to Die
Resin and Nitrous Oxide Canisters
Sculpture (x2)
08
Eyes of Babylon
Print on Canvas
Photography (x2)
09
Cabbage
Acrylic on Canvas
Painting (x2)
10
The Unacquainted
Acrylic on Paper
Painting (x2)
t
11
The Belly of Mammon
Acrylic and Egg on Paper
Painting (x2)
IN THE GALLERY
Turritopsis Dohrni: Vol.2
"Death - the longest life may fade and perish, but one moment can live and become immortal.”
Death, following a life lived well, or even one full regret, is one of the greatest gifts of all time - freedom from one of the worst fates imaginable - an eternity of suffering and loss.
Perhaps death also provides an opportunity for a new life - one that transcends the confinement of our human bodies – a legacy which allows us to cheat suffering, whilst ensuring the continuation of our lives through those we’ve inspired and enthused.
The Sons of Eldorado: Vol.1
Cast from the mould of a real human skull, The Sons of Eldorodo persists as a symbol of the falsehood of money, and the rapacious greed which drives the conspicuous culture of modern consumption.
Whether it be the Musa of Mali, or a Spaniard diving to the depths of Lake Guatavita for the remains of gold ceremony, it seems the desperation for decadence has never been a thing to be ashamed of - rather a fashionable symbol to be worn with pride, like a fur jacket or Balenciaga shoes.
The Sons of Eldorado: Vol.2
“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have." - Socrates
The issue of contentment (or the lack thereof) is of course a spiritual one - material goods simply serve as pain killers for a deeper cancer, which ultimately will still kill you, even if only on the inside.
Turritopsis Dohrni: Vol.1
"Life - do not pity the dead, pity the living, and above all, those who live without love." - J.K.Rowling
Immortality is an age-old quest. and now more than ever, we are going to greater and greater lengths to achieve forever. From the Egyptians and their strange path to pseudo-immortality, to early modern European alchemists who dreamt of an elixir which would grant perpetual life, civilisations throughout history have associated longevity with good fortune.
Unfortunately, the underpinnings of the pursuit of eternal life seem to originate from a disease in man’s soul - a feeling of being behind, unsatisfied, unaccomplished and unfulfilled.
Turritopsis Dohrni: Vol.2
"Death - the longest life may fade and perish, but one moment can live and become immortal.” - Theodore Powys
Death, following a life lived well, or even one full regret, is one of the greatest gifts of all time - freedom from one of the worst fates imaginable - an eternity of suffering and loss.
Perhaps death also provides an opportunity for something else - for a new life - one that transcends the confinement of our human bodies – a legacy which allows us to cheat suffering, whilst ensuring the continuation of our lives through those we’ve inspired and enthused.
Horns of Ebony: Vol.1
Inspired by African American pride, autonomy and solidarity, the horns of Ebony mimics societal dreams of integration, by pointing not to differences in politics, ideology, or economic structure, but rather the variances in culture and identity, which for the years to come may service as the prime source of conflict amongst members of globally integrated/interdependent societies.
Horns of Ebony: Vol.2
By disputing the sentimentality of a perceived 'Clash of Civilizations' and by bringing our racial differences to the forefront of discussion, the Horns of Ebony seeks to provoke discussion, anger and revelation with the ultimate goal of forcing acceptance.
Whiplash:
Vol.1
Depicting the emergence of a great musician from the harmonisation of birds, Whiplash plays on our preconceptions on the roles of desolation and humiliation in the forging of great artistic works, to portray staged acts of triumph and counter-triumph.
Whiplash:
Vol.2
"Absolute perfection requires absolute sacrifice"
In a compulsion to achieve greatness, a woman forfeits her sanity and transcends her former self, much of which requires self-destruction.
If the old self is not good enough, then the old self must be destroyed - this only makes sense to the maniac. As you may have figured, part of her transformation, is a journey into insanity.
For the insecure overachiever, failure to achieve this is often the beginning of profound moral and existential crises.
Then she asks herself, perhaps I should have remained ignorant, perhaps there is no greater purpose to find, perhaps what is in front of me is all there is, perhaps the torture of the pursuit of meaning doesn’t make life more meaningful, just different.
Renegade - The Odd One Out: Vol.1
“Here's to the crazy ones - the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” - Rob Siltanen/Apple Inc
Renegade - The Odd One Out: Vol.2
Made with teeth, plucked from L.K.Ifayemi’s own mouth, renegade stands as a symbol of defiance, change and insubordination. Unbound by civility or formality, renegades are necessary for challenging our collective psyche and by their very nature/composition, offer an alternative dialogue to the vernacular conversations of the ordinary and the unfulfilled.
Flowers of the Desert: Vol.1&2
Like a bright red rose sprouting out from the arid Atacama Deserts, there are the unlikely few, who have defied the conventions of stagnant social mobility and reached heights of success few of us could fathom. The story of these few improbable winners, is one of doubt, cynicism, apathy, perseverance and triumph – much like the beliefs and attitudes towards the contents of these bottles through history – from ancient Greece, to imperial China.
Karōshi - Dying to Live, Living to Die: Vol.1
Collectively Karoshi Vol.1 & 2 consist of exactly 204 cannisters. The alignment of each reflects the panoptic power of the modern-day workplace.
New production concepts and notions of virtual organisations represent an anti-bureaucratic discourse, which instead of routinisation and alienation, promises a new world of high trust and empowered work relationships. Some however have drawn attention to the darker side and implications of such ideas, in particular, the capacities of such organisational forms to use electronic technology to generate subordination through uncertainty.
The origin of this particular idea pre-dates much of the first, let alone any subsequent industrial revolutions. It can be traced to plans for a new type of prison made by Jeremy Bentham (published in 1791).
This novel architectural design deployed a circular layout and other structural and environmental devices to render warders invisible to inmates.
This allowed control to be maintained by keeping the prisoner in a constant state of uncertainty in respect of whether they were being observed or not. This design was termed by Bentham the ‘panopticon’ or ‘all seeing place’.
Karōshi - Dying to Live, Living to Die: Vol.2
Feminist writers have argued that conflict at work occurs not only between labour and capital, but also reflects inequalities and antagonisms in the wider sexual division of labour between men and women.
Moreover, employees collude in their own subordination through ‘anticipatory conformity’ by seeking to avoid errors on their part, but also to identify and point out the errors of their female peers.
In sum, Karoshi shows that the very existence of power is seen as relying upon a multiplicity of points of resistance, which play the role of adversary, target, support or handle within power relationships. Thus resistance is inconceivable without discipline.
The existence of resistance does not mean that discipline is threatened. It means that discipline can grow stronger knowing where its next effort must be directed.
Eyes of Babylon: Vol.1
Seen by some as a menacing tool of oppression and totalitarian control, electronic surveillance – the all-seeing eye of god, has insidiously corrupted our humanity and nullified any rights to privacy, under the guise of the provision comfort and universal security. As such the human races find it’s in a constant state of flux – our anxieties about being watched, are equally matched by our anxieties about not.
Eyes of Babylon: Vol.2
"god giveth and god taketh away life."
Our data is our social/digital DNA and reflects our more abstract being – our dreams, our hopes and our fears. Coupled with biologically reproductive cloning techniques, perhaps an eventuality for humanity is a place where we can clone not only our physical, but our mental selves – allowing for the duplication and immortalization of our lives/stories through the use of the internet and social media.
Cabbage:
Vol.1
Food as a ‘Right to Life’, is a virtue which has fashioned international conceptions of human rights -created to alleviate the marginalities of food accessibility and poverty. Globally ratified agendas, pinned upon this premise, are engraved in the legislative doctrines of unilateral institutions.
Yet, the synonymy between food and power or poverty remain determinants of sectionalism amongst variant races, classes and castes of people, which contradict the rhetoric informing the global development narrative.
The intersectional intricacies of ‘rights to food’, fuel the problematisation of global methods to improving livelihoods.
Cabbage:
Vol.2
Food insecurity has long been contingent on deficits in the interplay between market institutionalism, and the rapidity of globalisation. Despite conceptual commitments to the resolve of food insecurity, and its ‘fragile and unsustainable’ nature, its pre-eminence on the agenda of international institutions is superseded by global economic concerns; that reaffirm governmental push towards ‘budget cuts and fiscal austerity’- despite rising food prices and the subjectivities of agricultural uncertainty.
The Unacquainted: Vol.1
There is often a thin line between beauty and terror. Dichotomized, the female anatomy distorts the boundaries between ecstasy and phrenzy, violence and anguish.
The Unacquainted: Vol.2
Masculinity was once a place of sensuous exuberance - where reality could be bent to fulfill fantasies of power, wealth, and beauty.
Progressively, however, our understanding of masculinity is changing entirely.
The Belly of Mammon: Vol.1
“The rich are immortally rich.”
The Belly of Mammon aims to illustrate the interplay between intersectional forces within the wealthier classes, to understand poor resentment for the elite, who by virtue of nepotism and inheritance, perpetuate themselves by transferring social and economic capital to their offspring - the next generation in a never-ending cycle of the immortally rich.
The Belly of Mammon: Vol.2
The state, the wealthy and the poor, find themselves at a critical juncture. As the ability for technologies to operate and perhaps even “think” autonomously advances (negating the need for human capital) populist uprisings will no longer be held against a class of elite who exploit the common man, but rather an elite that ignores him. This poses a real problem for the poor - it is far more difficult to battle irrelevance than it is to contest fight exploitation.
