Artificial Paradise exhibition

I'm part of this group show showing a new video work 'The Look of Love' which ends on Sunday at Six Second Gallery 51-63 Ridley Road Hackney London E8 2NP. Open by appointment only and open all day this Sunday 13th

Contact Galen Riley at galenriley@yahoo.co.uk +447949002508

PRESS RELEASE

Artificial Paradise

A Study of Intoxication

Ben Fitton, Annis Joslin, Galen Riley, Dallas Seitz and Kenneth Varpe

Curated by Galen Riley

Private view: Thursday 13th October 6-10pm

Wang Mo (d. ca. 800) excelled at splattering ink to paint landscapes, hence he was called ‘Ink Wang’… There was a good deal of wildness in him, and he loved his wine. Whenever he wished to paint a hanging scroll, he would first drink, then after he was drunk he would splatter ink. Laughing or singing, he would kick at it with his feet or rub it with his hands, sweep [with his brush] or scrub, with the ink sometimes pale and sometimes dark.

Zhang Yanyuan (815–877 CE)

Lidai minghua ji (Famous Paintings throughout the Ages)

In Intoxication: Life in Pursuit of Artificial Paradise, Doctor Ronald K Siegel posits the drive towards intoxication as the ‘fourth’ drive, after Freud’s three basic human drives. The relationship between art and alcohol is a long and fruitful one, intoxication often leads to inspiration, and the dislocation of the rational mind by drink or other intoxicants and mind-altering substances allows the subconscious content to float freely to the surface. The artists in ‘Artificial Paradise: A Study of Intoxication’ all have intoxication as an overt or covert part of their praxis, inflecting the work through the distorting prism of intoxication.

Richard Dyer will read the paperless poem ‘Alcohol’ on the opening night.