20/6/2006
Nayland Blake
Fred, London
The Expulsion from the Garden
The Expulsion from the Garden
Fred are delighted to present their first exhibition by Nayland Blake.
During the last years Blake’s focus has been on the internal politics of relationships, and it is through his practice that he has questioned not only the roles one plays, but also how we represent the complex emotional side of the partnerships in our lives.
This rich personal language is common to Blake’s work, and in the past his works have questioned and debated co-dependency, monogamy, desire, sexual attraction and love through the employment of a variety of his signature symbols and images. Blake has often referred to the codes and adopted identities used to define role and representation within the gay community as a platform on which to construct and reveal his complex inner world. Blake uses existing narratives to move between positions of identification and alienation.
In this exhibition, Blake mixes a variety cultural and artistic references including William Friedkin's 1980 film Cruising and Derek Jarman’s 1993 masterpiece Blue, hillbilly liquor decanters, bearded action figures from his personal collections, the graphic work of Saul Steinberg and garden gnomes to examine his emotional state in the wake of the unexpected death of his partner of eleven years.
By turns clinically explicit and tenderly oblique, this exhibition is also an expression of grief, guilt and sexual longing which looks unflinchingly at the experience of loosing a partner with whom many inter-relationship questions remain unanswered.
Private View June 21st, 6.30 - 8.30
Fred
Ltd 45 Vyner Street - London