Offsite Show Banner

I am attracted to the concept of Socialist realism due to the way it marries together both romantic idealism and corrupt dictatorships together. The juxtaposition between the utopian romantic portrayal of country and the actual reality of life living under the stalinist regime both interested me and also somewhat guiltily amused me.

This piece is directly responding and exploring Soviet Porcelain propaganda. The unlikely combination of radical revolutionary propaganda and traditional ornate porcelain models coming together is something that I found both amusing and interesting. Porcelain models as an object has relevance to the location of my offsite show, one end of the street (Church Street) has many expensive antique shops and therefore sell and display a lot of traditional porcelain, the other end of the street has lots of inexpensive fabric shops. Sourcing the fabric of my banner from down the road and using it to present porcelain model’s I am attempting to mimic the setting of the exhibition and make the work somewhat site specific.

The image accompanying the banner helps situate the banner in history and provide a fake historical legitamacy, this therefor also questions the legitimacy and authenticity of images.

I really enjoyed the installation element of the piece, the way the banner hung from the gallery sealing occupying the space. I am currently interested in exploring alternative ways of displaying imagery in an installation way, banners and wallpapers seem like effective ways of displaying flat 2d images in a way that doesn't limit the installation to just a simple rectangular wall piece.