*Opening this Saturday at Galerie Ron Mandos: ‘Bio-Shock’, the latest conceptual installation from Artists Anonymous. (This exposition is sponsored by Prins Heerlijk Antiek.)
Opening: zaterdag 18 april, 16.00 – 19.00.
Bio-Shock after-party at Nitro Club – Jacob van Lennepkade 334 G, 1058 NJ Amsterdam. Doors open from 22.00. Contact gallery for guestlist*
Encroaching into every inch of the 350 square meter Galerie Ron Mandos, this latest installation will consist of an array of different surreal scenes: a wild wood, an overgrown garden, a down ‘n out cabaret, a surreal beach dinner setting. Each ‘room’ will be constructed from different technologies and media, combining personal details, art-historical references, internet and computer game imagery to create an other-worldy and unsettling environment where all is not quite what it seems. The collective’s newly created paintings, photographs and light-boxes will be seamlessly incorporated into these locations, forming points of visual interest within this sinister spectacle.
The ‘Bio-Shock’ installation directly references and comments on the artificial realities we increasingly inhabit today. Staged as a microcosm of chat rooms, social networking sites, computer games and even fantasy novels, the installation directly reflects and comments on these artificial locations that increasingly provide the context for our fulfillment and triumphs as human beings and to whose rules, conventions and boundaries we are more than willing to subjugate ourselves to.
But as the wonderful and magical forces of the AA’s staged universe lose their shine and reveal a sinister and rotten underbelly, we ask ourselves what do we gain by being indoctrinated by these electronic super-realms? And how corrupted have our ‘natural’ human values become?
Since their emergence in 2001 Artists Anonymous have enjoyed significant critical success. Their work has been championed by well regarded pioneers of the contemporary art world, such as the Contemporary Art Society in the UK, the Deutsche Bank Collection, the Rubell Family Collection and the London based Saatchi Collection. Recently they have enjoyed grand-scale solo exhibitions at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin and the Liverpool Biennale.
