David R Miller
The Witching Hour
Curated by Matthew Collings and Matt Price
at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
The Witching Hour was a group show Curated by Matthew Collings and Matt Price of notable artist with a link to Birmingham. Artists included Richard Billingham, Juneau Projects, Idris Khan, Reuben Henry and Karen Kilberg, George Shaw and Gillian Wearing.
Congregation
at Crowd6 Gallery
'Society is breaking down! The youth are rebelling! We are all going to be killed by terrorists! It's the end of the world!'
A contrast is set between the idea of youth as beautiful and innocent, and the demonization of elements of today's youth by the media. The installation doubles as a representation of the beginning of the world in Genesis, and the destruction of the world in Revelation.
The first chapter finds an airy room drowning in daylight with small images of Apple Blossom, referencing the blooming of youth and the Garden of Eden's forbidden fruit. These are created from film stills, printed as slides and re-photographed with a slide-copier. They are to be viewed with glasses of cider.
In the second room a visual thread is found, linking various omnipresent but anonymous figures of doom and destruction. Starting with the much publicised image of the hooded youth, or 'Hoodie', and then tracing the silhouette of this sartorial motif via international terrorists, the Grim Reaper and finishing with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. This vision was created by torchlight to produce four large-scale photographic drawings. These hang high on the wall giving an intimidating, claustrophobic effect. The viewer now sips on red wine and is transcended into obvious religious connotations of death and blood.