Vanitas

Vanitas took the spectre of tragedy as its central preoccupation. Informed by reportage of unexplained plane crashes, in addition to aerial police activity where helicopters and drones are used to track and apprehend fugitives, the work produced a hostile environment from which to view accounts and images of disaster. 

Split across two floors of the gallery, the downstairs installation evoked a windowless administrative room with shadows of pinboards - a classic motif of the investigative drama. A short story The Cave, bound in a file cover atop a low plinth, was anchored by a drawing of a skull trailing onto the floor. In the middle of the space hung a large red mobile, which mimicked the red circles superimposed onto mediated images, intended to direct a viewer’s focus toward the moment of drama or tragedy within.

Upstairs, the oversized drawing Vanitas took centre stage. Completed through the run of the exhibition, the drawing emerged as a mess of marks and shapes, finally being revealed as the scene of a plane crash. Placeless and untethered from a clear form, the drawing was awkwardly framed by a second mobile, which slowly rotated off-balance in the centre of the space.