Opens in 3 locations; at the 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Central, The Gallery Annex, Chai Wan and launching the 10 Chancery Lane Gallery Art Projects, Chai Wan.
Hong Kong based British artist, Simon Birch, winner of the Louis Vuitton Asian Art Prize 2007 exhibits a new show entitled ‘This Brutal House’.
Sharing its title with the era defining 1986 track by Nitro Deluxe, ‘This Brutal House’ is an installation including performance, collaborative work with Hong Kong photographer Wing Shya, video and of course new paintings for which Simon Birch is so well known.
The work itself relates to the experience of modern life, both the positive struggle and the tension felt when transitioning between one phase of life and another and the way certain emotions such as happiness, sadness and anger can engulf a person.
‘This Brutal House’ is explicit in showing that life is a circus and as such it is full of drama. The installation’s performance is under the direction of a ‘ring leader’, underlining the carnival aspect of the theme, yet it is no mere fairground attraction, instead its complexity and completeness enables the viewer to be enveloped in Birch’s vision of the intensity of the human condition.
“House means many things to many people, a place of comfort and familiarity, but also a place of stress and drama and turmoil. Like life, our environment can be challenging but rewarding and brutality can be liberating. The brutality of climbing a mountain leads to the joy of the success. This Brutal House, the reality of life.” Simon Birch