'At The Violet Hour' Curated by Chiara Williams and Shaun Stamp, at the Nayland Rock Hotel, Margate, 2018. This exhibition consisted of 23 local, national and international artists with heavy themes on myth, gender and 'facets of the self' ( Chiara Williams Contemporary Art, 2018 ). This idea of the 'facets of the self' draws attention to the hidden sides of personality, prehpahs highlighted in Room 401. The exhibition filled the rooms of the empty grade 2 listed hotel. The setting here is succesful due to the connotations of a empty hotel many of us have. This idea of a place so full of memories for thousands of people, families, friends, to being an abandoned four walls. It brings to life many of the fictional connotations many have towards once loved and now forgotten buildings, haunted by the buzz of the past. This exhibition was influenced by T.S Eliots, 'The Waste Land', a poem published in 1922. This poem, The Waste Land, can be viewed as a poem regarding brokenness and loss, along side allusions to the First World War suggesting how the war played a significant part in bringing about a social, psychological, and emotional collapse, visualised throughout this exhibition. Like a empty hotel can't offer any feeling of home, The Waste Land posits a place where little is growing and thriving, and life needs to be restored.
The installation in Room 401 by artist Dazzling Allgood called, 'Where Are We Going,
Bludd ? At The Violent Hour' is a perfect sculpture representation supporting the fictional assocaitations with the empty hotel setting, while also representing the poem, In The Waste Land. An assault event in the poem may infer Allgoods installation where a person causes another pain and trauma for their own pleasure, 'he assaults at once...His vanity requires no response'. This act of a rape assault within the poem linked to themes of 'vanity' posits the use of luxury symbols used within Allgoods work,. A key word used by the exhibition curators here is colloquial phrase, 'Chavism' inferring the idea of being looked down upon within society, connotations of the discriminatory label, 'chav', is seen here with links to stereotypical themes of violence with a lust for a vanity, feeling the need to be threatening to society in order to not feel 'wasted' within society.
The representation of a combined pattern of luxury logos as a series of brocken and distracted figures highlight the purpose and comment upon the occurrence of crisis along side the personal crisis of aspiration. The act of using aspirations to appear more valued within society can lead to the crisis of materialistic importance over the appreciation for life, health, love, happiness, stability. The blood manipulation of the logos here, Louis Vuitton - one of the most highly regarded and well know luxury brands, hence Allgoods caeful choice of this watermark and logo - creates a sense of irony between the desired, usually glamorised logo juxtaposed with the violent, murder symbolism of the splashed blood effect. This random composition of the dripping blood effect mimicking the disperse of a light liquid such as blood it's self really posits the war imagery within The Waste Land poem but put's these themes of violence and loss into the modern world, pairing them with a maertalirstic attitude.
The graffiti elements of this installation piece enhance the urban, modern culture throughout in which the fashion industry is particalurt present yet satirised. The objective blood hue of a red is articfucally lightened to create a more glamorised and fictional chroma in relation to this theme of murder and violence. The setting of a bathroom imparticular references the theme of vanity that is so praised within society, relying on the appearance and ownership of luxury goods. Bathrooms are typically a place used to improve and enhance ones appearance however the white, cool lighting of the bathroom emphasises more clinical themes. This is significant as the white base of this setting creates a strong contrast between the bright, pure red hue aswell giving the blood manipulated logo hierarchy here,
Linking to my research looking at the social class divides and these heirachys influenced by the luxury fashion industry it's self, this installation by Allgood really draws upon the power of a logo within society and the negative consequences this holds within society, the discriminatory attitudes and behaviours this promotes. The idea of muder and violence here, visualised the blood effect violetly plastered around the room, infers how in todays society many of us are reduced to a status of wealth and success based on our appearnce and out ownership of certain objects. As a society this is how value and worth is measured. When in reality this is the downfall of society as represented here.
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