September 13th - October 5th 2008.

images> [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] "A New Nostalgia",7 min video

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“…where am I when I’m not in the real world, or my imagination…”, Nostalgia 1983, Andrei Tarkovsky

Will Davys maintains a practice that is divisible into the separate disciplines of painting and video. This is the result of a persistent inadequacy of one, and a desire for the other.

The post ‘end of history’ and the death of ideology are mirrored in the end of art. All that remains are Sisyphean and Don Quixote heroes. With reference to these characters, he takes an approach that is both heroic and futile (albeit self–conscious) towards the propositions that are presented in his practice.

The paintings are worked towards a vacant utopian (as in the ‘non–place’) space/constructs, referring to illusions/delusions of both antiquity and progress. As a result of their process, their desire for autonomy, and the inevitability of appropriation as a language structure, the paintings are resolved into empty pictorial statements. Within the discipline of video he appropriates either from his own footage, or from resources such as Andre Tarkovsky scenes.