BEN GAVIN

The contradictions of a digital life,.. Ben Gavin, produces thought provoking observations on both geopolitics and the constant power play we engage in as social media users. `Text by Mike Watson (ARTFORUM / ZERO BOOKS) READ HERE

More recently in a globalised and virtualised world, we are made to feel conscious of inclusion and diversity. Difference has never been more ideological. It has never been so ubiquitously high on the agenda.. Different + Painting, text by Adam Geczy (Bloomsbury UK) READ MORE

CV

AFTERMATH

CARTEL Bangkok 

August 7-31, 2019

Building on the Duchampian strategy of the readymade and the use of artwork titles to create provocative self-descriptive works, Ben Gavin’s practice incorporates and displaces objects, text and images.
Aftermath transforms the gallery into an Contemporary Art Fair booth with signage mounted above the entrance. The viewer enters into a meditative space filled with residue: dispersed foam and cardboard, bundles of discarded plastic, tyvek paper, wrapping, water bottles, various tape, crushed aluminium cans, screws in the wall and coffee take away cups – the debris of excessive production and consumption.

Aftermath is a multilayered reading. The intimacy of disposable materials fleeting in space without purpose imitates the obfuscated realities of the globalised spectacle of blue chip art fairs. It questions their impact on local markets, ecologically, culturally and economically. By presenting Aftermath at CARTEL the artist metaphorically questions the vulnerability of cities with strong economical growth on the periphery of the Western art canon, such as Bangkok and alludes to the thriving local creativity of South East Asia as a place that demands it´s own international attention.

Exhibition and residency at CARTEL Bangkok courtesy of Mit Jai Inn and Kan Nathiwutthikun