For his exhibition Juan James Sydney Simon has shredded and purged himself of every document from his personal life from the last eight years; everything from bills to love letters, everything that makes up the swarm of paper that swirls around modern life.
Past Exhibition
Tūrei 2 -
Hātarei 27
Noema
Tuesday 2 -
Saturday 27
November
2010
For his exhibition Juan James Sydney Simon has shredded and purged himself of every document from his personal life from the last eight years; everything from bills to love letters, everything that makes up the swarm of paper that swirls around modern life. This mass of paper scraps bursts out through a wall and into the gallery with the jovial fanfare of a confetti shower. Standing sentinel over this scene are two allegorical objects: a taxidermied black bird and a glass skull filled with paper.
As reminders of our fragile existence, they cast an ominous shadow, repositioning the spread of paper as a comment on the excesses of consumption and waste in contemporary society. Simultaneously cynical and loving, Simon's work sounds the warning that it is not too late for us to take action. Simon has also undertaken a satellite project at nearby cafe Mazagran, which will be on show first two weeks of the exhibition.
Presented alongside Liz Rowe Never Too Careful and Miranda Bellamy 99 Ways to Solve Global Warming . In these shows the artists confront us with contemporary social and environmental problems and the barriers to change that continue to exist. Their works stand as a challenge to revise set patterns of thinking and doing and a provocation to look for solutions at a personal level.
