- Venue
- South Hill Park Arts Centre
- Location
- South East England
Review – Greg Daville
South Hill Park
1 December 2007 – 20 January 2008
Daville's work consists of manipulated photos that are exhibited in the Atrium Bar and as part of the ‘Surveillance' exhibition at South Hill Park. Daville showcases his ‘Rescued Items from Babel' series in the Atrium and ‘Urbicide' in the Surveillance exhibition.
The idea of the house and home is apparent in Daville's work. The ‘Urbicide' series is a literal representation which highlights the physical structures of the building, while ‘Rescued Items' relates to Daville's experiences of the home as a child and is a deeply personal account of that time and is expressed in a metaphorical manner, which is distant from the obvious depiction of the home in ‘Urbicide'.
With this notion of the home, it also highlights issues of modern living. ‘Urbicide' in particular focuses on the consumerism of today's society with buildings that are more like containers than homes. Daville manipulates his photographs to highlight this further by blocking in windows, making paths and doorways narrower and emphasising the uniformity of suburban living. This urban claustrophobia also indicates a loss of communication with others and society as we are ‘only united by our separateness' (Debord, Society of the Spectacle, 1967). This idea from Debord and the Situationist International has been an influence on Daville as he uses the idea of the ‘Derive' as an antithesis of his ‘Urbicide' work. Using this Daville's work highlights the ‘ideal' of the Situationists against the grid like structures of the homes that he has manipulated. The Derive was to drift through the city and have spontaneous experiences, something that is impossible in the controlled and uniform world displayed in Daville's work. The Situationist International disliked modern society of consumerism and images. Likewise, Daville's work is a critique of our contemporary world.
The titles of the works in the ‘Rescued Items' series are significant in emphasising the visual states of collapse that is seen in the photographs. Daville suggests that the inspiration for this work is his very personal mid-life crisis and frustrations towards aspects of modern living such as bureaucracy.[1] Titles such as ‘Resignation', ‘Slump' and ‘Block' are words that are associated with difficulty and aggravation. They can also be attributed to a lack of communication that only exasperates the problems of today's society. This work however also has a personal link with Daville's childhood where he grew up in an argumentative family. The relationship Daville has with his notebooks in the photographs is vital as they represent a relationship from the past but also how Daville is displayed with them as he appears to be overwhelmed by them and therefore overwhelmed by family life.
Daville's work portrays living in Britain today. He uses literal representations as well as metaphorical ones to display his concerns and annoyances. There are strong links with the Situationist International and this highlights to me that perhaps the work of the SI is still relevant today.
[1] Information gained from talk by artist, The House that Joseph Built, 13 December 2007 at South Hill Park
