'Rejuvenation' by Tom Estes at The Whitechapel Gallery
Posted by Tom Estes on Tuesday, June 5, 2012
In 2008 Estes premiered his work 'Rejuvenation'' at The RVC exhibition 'Lust & Luxuria' as part of The Whitechapel Gallery, Late Nghts.
'Rejuvenation'' is a 'found object' originally marketed under the aegis of 'Health and Beauty'. While the face of the mask exhibits a kind of hieratic calm, on the back are tiny metal nodules that send electric currents into the face of the wearer. Estes has further highlighted the sado-masochistic element of the object by displaying it in a slightly downward cast. However, the mask is also displayed under a glass dome and on a light box and plinth. A commentary on the hidden and concealed nature of master narratives, the main conceit of the work is that release from physical chains only results in the replacement of mental ones. Through this kind of irreverent tweaking of the politics of display, Estes creates slight shifts in perception, thereby suggesting that fantasy and illusion are not contradictions of reality, but instead and integral part of our everyday lives.
The Whitechapel Gallery is internationally acclaimed for its exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. The Whitechapel exhibited Pablo Picasso's Guernica in 1938 as part of a touring exhibition organised by Roland Penrose to protest the Spanish Civil War and The Gallery has premiered international artists such as Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Nan Goldin and provided a showcase for Britain’s most significant artists from Gilbert & George to Lucian Freud, Peter Doig to Mark Wallinger. Through its pioneering exhibition, education and public events programmes, The Whitechapel Gallery plays a unique role in London's cultural landscape.
Tom Estes' works are regularly shown in some of the more cutting edge and experimental curation projects at The Whitechapel Gallery. Estes frequently screens his video work at The Whitechapel and through his regular involvment with the exhibition group, The Red Velvet Curtain Cult. The curators of the Red Velvet Curtain Cult have described Estes' work as "darkly disturbing & hauntingly beautiful".
The Red Velvet Curtain Cult offers a platform to artists to experiment and collaborate within a supportive group of like minded creative types. We embrace work that is playful, macabre, surreal, ridiculous, absurd, beautiful, un-nerving, misaligned and unusual to create theatrical evenings that immerse the viewer in an interactive experience. The events are a blend of many different media & formats with performances, installations, music, 2D and 3D work, ephemera, happenings and lurkings.
http://www.redvelvetcurtainclub.com/index.html
http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/shop/index.php/fuseaction/shop.product/product_id/247
'Rejuvenation'' is a 'found object' originally marketed under the aegis of 'Health and Beauty'. While the face of the mask exhibits a kind of hieratic calm, on the back are tiny metal nodules that send electric currents into the face of the wearer. Estes has further highlighted the sado-masochistic element of the object by displaying it in a slightly downward cast. However, the mask is also displayed under a glass dome and on a light box and plinth. A commentary on the hidden and concealed nature of master narratives, the main conceit of the work is that release from physical chains only results in the replacement of mental ones. Through this kind of irreverent tweaking of the politics of display, Estes creates slight shifts in perception, thereby suggesting that fantasy and illusion are not contradictions of reality, but instead and integral part of our everyday lives.
The Whitechapel Gallery is internationally acclaimed for its exhibitions of modern and contemporary art. The Whitechapel exhibited Pablo Picasso's Guernica in 1938 as part of a touring exhibition organised by Roland Penrose to protest the Spanish Civil War and The Gallery has premiered international artists such as Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Nan Goldin and provided a showcase for Britain’s most significant artists from Gilbert & George to Lucian Freud, Peter Doig to Mark Wallinger. Through its pioneering exhibition, education and public events programmes, The Whitechapel Gallery plays a unique role in London's cultural landscape.
Tom Estes' works are regularly shown in some of the more cutting edge and experimental curation projects at The Whitechapel Gallery. Estes frequently screens his video work at The Whitechapel and through his regular involvment with the exhibition group, The Red Velvet Curtain Cult. The curators of the Red Velvet Curtain Cult have described Estes' work as "darkly disturbing & hauntingly beautiful".
The Red Velvet Curtain Cult offers a platform to artists to experiment and collaborate within a supportive group of like minded creative types. We embrace work that is playful, macabre, surreal, ridiculous, absurd, beautiful, un-nerving, misaligned and unusual to create theatrical evenings that immerse the viewer in an interactive experience. The events are a blend of many different media & formats with performances, installations, music, 2D and 3D work, ephemera, happenings and lurkings.
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As an artist I have always leaned toward making Live Art performance work that is participatory or immersive in some way. In my Live Art performance I stage an 'action' and then ask members of the audience to take pictures on a communal camera. In this way, the audience becomes part of the performance, and the pictures are then posted on on-line social networking sites and web sites for another, wider on-line audience.
For me, fantasy and illusion are not contradictions of reality, but instead an integral part of our everyday lives. There is a real Peter Pan Syndrome at play in my work and I suppose I would consider myself to be a carnival sideshow conceptualist, combining a bare-bones formal conceptualism with an eternally adolescent, prank DIY comic-approach.
At the core of this work is an attention to the flickering, fading definition of our lives as dictated by the computer monitor and the rapid reply of instant messaging. I strive, not to break down these introverted, often self-imposed boundaries, but to look at how dataflow from the virtual realm impacts on the significance and symbolism of real-world human senses. But in doing so, I have begun to generate unexpected questions about how art might be able to inscribe itself on the surface of reality- not to represent itself on the surface of reality –not to represent reality, nor to duplicate it, but to replace it.
