Alan Brooks
dal 15/10/2010 al 15/11/2010
Segnalato da
15/10/2010
Alan Brooks
Motinternational, London
Inspired by The Harvard Classics, originally known as Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf, Alan Brooks has adapted the concept to produce his most ambitious work to date, Five Foot Shelf. Dr. Eliot's 51-volume anthology of classic works from world literature was first published in 1909, and was designed to be an autodidactic education system for the common man. The installation consists of 46 framed pencil drawings on paper and one 5' shelf containing the books of selected authors.
As a continuation of our 2010 program, in which the gallery responds to work as close to the moment of its completion as possible, we are showing a major new installation by Alan Brooks.
“A shelf of books would hold enough to give, in the course of years a good substitute for a liberal education to anyone who would read them for 15 minutes a day.” _Charles W. Eliot
Inspired by The Harvard Classics, originally known as Dr. Eliot’s Five Foot Shelf, Alan Brooks has adapted the concept to produce his most ambitious work to date, Five Foot Shelf. Dr. Eliot’s 51-volume anthology of classic works from world literature was first published in 1909, and was designed to be an autodidactic education system for the common man. For his work Brooks has compiled his own index of titles that he perceives to be the greatest influence on his thinking as an artist from childhood to present day.
The installation consists of 46 framed pencil drawings on paper and one 5’ shelf containing the books of selected authors. Through this series of drawings, Brooks has hyper realistically memorialized the portraits of each author often sourced from photographs found on the internet. Although, conservative in nature, the drawings manage to mirror Eliot’s ethos of liberal education. Brooks has literally spent hundreds of hours in a labour intensive drawing process where the minute details makes up the whole. The individual drawings are modest in scale, but when placed together become a sculptural monument equivalent to the lifetime process envisaged by Eliot’s proposed educational system.
Since studying at the Slade in the early nineties Brooks has had a number of Solo shows including Mobile Home Gallery, London; Percy Miller Gallery, London; Galerie Albrecht, Munich, Germany and Marlene Eleini Gallery, London. His work has been included in numerous exhibitions and prizes including; John Moores 20, 21 & 24, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; Paul Morris Gallery, New York, USA; EAST International, Norwich; Oriel Mostyn Open, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno, Wales; and the Jerwood Painting Prize, Jerwood Gallery, London. His previous series of drawings will be included in the forthcoming exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, Newspeak II.
Opening, 16 October 2010 6-9pm
Mot International
54 Regents Studios, 8 Andrews Road, London E8 4QN