29th March – 25th April 2005
Site-specific works by Benjamin Fallon
'The Exquisite Corpse' is the first solo show by Edinburgh based artist/curator Benjamin Fallon. Having regularly shown within the group context he now feels ready to take this daunting and important step in the development of his practice. His work moves between a multitude of medias and techniques daintily lifting aesthetic and conceptual maneuvers from a broad range of art historical and cultural references. His working method leads to a style that demands each new work be project based and against the ideology of single works that acts to answer a simple singular question.
In this exhibition he takes on the idea of 'The Exquisite Corpse' or 'Consequences' an old parlor game which was then adopted by the surrealists to create an 'accidental poetry' involving several peoples input to create a singular statement/ narrative/ image, in this case using the narrative, seen as a way of revealing 'the unconscious reality in the personality of the group'. Bringing a direct relation to the ideas of social space moving from the original context of the parlor updating to the modern day club/bar. The work is fundamentally site-specific using as its source the collective psyche of the clientele of the space and then subverting it into a series of nonsensical absurdist statements, the dimensions of all the work involved in the show also relate directly to the actual space within which they are exhibited. The works take on an excessively, almost offensively, decorative nature using household or 'common' materials such as MDF and gloss paint carefully avoiding any material that would have any heavily loaded art historical reference.
This show would not have been possible without the help of all the participants from the Bongo Club, all the kind people who helped me throughout the research period in responding to an oddly worded e-mail, Barney for all his help and allowing me the opportunity to use the space and finally I have to thank all the people I have met along the way who have thrown up questions and inspiration which have lead to the final resolution.
