From the emergence of the extreme right in Europe to the increasing
>global impact of religious fanaticism, belief systems continue to
>have a profound influence on our perceptions of ourselves and the
>wider world. About Belief brings together works by seven artists
>which in different ways explore ideas of belief, from belief in
oneself to a testing of the viewers' willingness to believe what
various works propose. The exhibition is the sixth annual
collaboration between Goldsmithsí College's MA in Creative Curating
and the South London Gallery. It is curated by Simon Gould, Chris
Huang, Jennifer Mojica, Alona Pardo, Sandra Ross and Vita Zaman.
In the late Autumn of 1980 Art¸ras Raila saw constellations of lights
moving in strange trajectories in the sky above the town of Telsiai
in Lithuania. Convinced that he had seen UFOs, the artist returned to
the same place 22 years later in order to recreate the memory in the
video Primitive Sky (2002).
Sarah Tripp's video Testatika (2001) uses the format of documentary
to explore the deeply-held belief of a close knit Christian community
in Switzerland in the existence of an energy-giving perpetual motion
machine.
Joost Conijn's video Airplane (2000) records the artist's endeavour
to build a plane from junk and spare parts which, against all the
odds, he succeeds in flying across the Moroccan desert.
In his on-going text based works, Jonathan Monk tests the viewers'
faith in his readiness to keep his word by inviting them to meet him
at various locations in the future. Meeting No.41 (2002) will be
shown for the first time in About Belief.
Scorpio Rising 2 (1997) by Mark Dean establishes a dialogue between
the sense of community resulting in shared religious belief and the
clan-like tendencies of Hells Angels by juxtaposing the films "Hells
Angels on Wheels" by Richard Rush and Pasolini's "The Gospel
According to St. Matthew".
Milica Tomic's powerful video work shows the artist bearing the
consequences of lying about
her national identity, highlighting the possible dangers of declaring
such allegiances.
Marko Maetamm's online project Me Supernatural (2002) offers an often
humorous account of an imagined dialogue between God and the devil
(www.livonia.ee/maetamm).
Related Links:
