Artists Explore The Blue Lagoon As A Vehicle For Multifaceted Associations

RICHARD HEALY,  ALEXANDRA GORCZYNSKI , MIA GOYETTE  and CALVIN SANGSTER are four artists who have been invited to respond to ‘Blue Lagoon’ as a Cocktail, a tourist destination and a place of relaxation and retreat. This is Thoresby Street’s forth exhibition in the series continues to situate itself in line with the current programme at Nottingham Contemporary by attempting to connect both to “The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things” a curated show by Mark Leckey and the following exhibition in their programme, “Aquatopia” that explores the imaginary potential or other worldliness of the ocean.

Blue Lagoon aims to explore display techniques, visual aesthetics and the dissemination of information and ideas available via the television, the internet, certain music genres, fashion, branding and advertising.  Thinking in particular of the multi-faceted associations one can have with the title Blue Lagoon, ranging from cocktails to porn films, aquatics, health spas, well being or exotic retreats; Richard Healy, London; Alexandra Gorczynski, New York; Mia Goyette, Berlin; and One Thoresby Street artist Calvin Sangster will attempt to embrace the gallery space as an alternative environment that can be interpreted in many different ways.

Much in the same way that Mark Leckey treats his exhibition as an artwork, with display strategies in place that question a viewer’s relationship to an object, Blue Lagoon provides a backdrop to an expectation that one might presume they will experience within the gallery space.

Richard Healy (b.1980) works in sculpture, installation, video and digital animation to explore fictions created through objects, materiality, tactility, sensation, structure and form. For Blue Lagoon, Healy presents “Against Nature”, titled after the 1884 novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans. combining the fictional and conceptual architectural form of the “reception desk” with a hand-blown glass vase, a vapouriser, scent to enhance productivity and floral arrangement, healy creates a dialogue between labour, leisure, gender, expectation, form and function.

Alexandra Gorczynski (b.1983) works in a variety of traditional and digital media to reflect aspects of our heavily networked and digitized lifestyles by exploring mundanity, surrealism, and sincerity within private and public space. For Blue Lagoon, Gorczynski has created “AFK Garden”, a video of vibrant blossoms collaged into a midnight landscape. “AFK” referring to the internet abbreviation for “away from keyboard”, makes this garden retreat a rather difficult, yet very desirable destination.

Mia Goyette (b. 1989) attempts to blur the line between made objects & consumer goods. Exhibited in Blue Lagoon is the series “Wet (Denim Gradient)”, 2013. Each of the four works is comprised of printed canvas, paint, and poured resin. These different forms of production are guided by color matching, object association, and tactility. The end product describes its own making, calling to mind the slick and self-affirming style of advertisements or branding.

Calvin Sangster (b.1988) explores the place between action and intent, fashion and branding, masculinity, form and display.

For Blue Lagoon we are presented with “Technotronic”, a colour plane, a formidable structure that attempts to isolate the gallery. Echoing the deep rumbling of a repetitive beat taken from the 12” version of ”Blue Monday” by New Order, Sangster creates a tension between expectation and familiarity, physicality and structure.

To continue his interest in gender, tension and stability, we are also presented with “Aquatonic”, a painted still taken from a television advert for the american ‘Gatorade’ brand of energy drinks advertising their ‘Glacier Freeze’ flavour. Aquatonic is also a men’s fragrance and shower gel. it is with these references that Sangster highlights the instability and expectation that are created as a result of certain advertising structures and campaigns.

BLUE LAGOON 21 JUNE – 20 JULY One Thoresby Street Nottingham

Visit Exhibition Here

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