Tuesday 20 July 2010

Karen Ryan & Straw Dogs


Karen Ryan - Custom Made in England, Vanity series - seen here

I like Karen Ryan's work very much, and I wish I could get down to London in time to see the show she is in at Spring Projects called Straw Dogs - it finishes on 30 July so I'll miss it.

The exhibition includes Jason Brooks, Jake & Dinos Chapman and Hans Stofer and is a response the philosopher John Gray's 2003 book Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals. This book has been a major influence for me in the last few years and I used it as the basis of my essay for a Philosophy of Art module I took trough Cardiff Centre of Lifelong Learning in 2008. It is a bleak view which questions Humanist ideas of progress and suggests that the impetus to understand the world in terms of linear progression is a hangover of Christian theology. He suggests that the drive towards constant improvement has created a paradigm of greed and dislocation from the natural world which has brought us to the brink of self destruction.

Karen Ryan - Fear, Installation - seen here

Gray has been criticised for his bleak approach to his subject, and he is hard to read and come out unaffected, but I feel there is some very important issues for the art world to consider in his ideas. So, I am doubly upset that I won't get to see this show!

Karen Ryan - In the Woods - seen here

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for showing Karen Ryan's new work. I have been a fan of hers for about 6 years now. First seeing her work at DesignersBlock and Rabih Hague. Spring projects looks like a gallery worth visiting . I am especially interested in their acceptance of the blurring of boundaries between design, fine art and maybe even craft.

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  2. I've not visited the gallery - but it's on my list when I'm next down! How's things with you? Any new work/shows?

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  3. Now that you've asked, Yes, I do have a new show. Just sent you an e mail invitation to it today. "Inventions of the Mind" at The Erasmus Darwin House, Lichfield, 31st July - 23rd Aug. Do let me know if you are able to come as I would love to meet you. I'm always amazed that you are able to write blog posts so regularly. And they are always good interesting posts too!
    Yes I have made some new work. One of the new pieces, "Colin" will be in the Lichfield show and the other is for Liverpool later this year.

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  4. Thanks for the info Kirsty - Oooo - I'd love to get over to see the show, let you know if I can!

    Thanks too for kind comments! I really enjoy writing the blog - so much gorgeous stuff out there!

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