For his MA show, Joe Upton invites the audience to engage in ‘pseudo-activities’ which break the conventional roles of spectatorship through an immersive 3D Film installation and participatory Paint-By-Numbers.
Inspired by the avant-garde movement of Situationism, Upton transposes the theory of The Society of the Spectacle to the modern day. The movement’s theories propose all existing social and cultural conditions are perpetually mediated by image and representation. The institutionalising effects of ‘The Spectacle’ render the individual a passive consumer of fleeting trends and pre-packaged lifestyles. Upton’s work observes these conditions have never been truer than in the contemporary climate of mass communication and media saturation.
Works Presented:
The Culture of Commodity: Part installation, part visual culture; this unique 3D Film experience plays with the notion of gimmick, alluding to the detrimental effects of our consumerist obsessions.
Man By Numbers: An audience participatory Paint-By-Numbers that encourages social and cultural interaction allowing visitors to contribute their creative expressions towards a communal finished piece.
3-Deerectives: Eye teasing Mixed-Media prints that highlight the fragmented and referential nature of our ideas and inspirations
Time and Place
23rd – 28th June, 12:00 – 18:00 daily / Private View Thursday 25th 18:00 – 21:00
Free Entry, All are welcome and encouraged to participate.
The DegreeArt.com Gallery, 30 Vyner Street, Bethnal Green, London, E2 9DQ
10 Minutes from Liverpool Street Station, nearest transportation;
Tube –Central Line: Bethnal Green, Overground – Cambridge Heath, Buses – 26/48/388
Filed under: degree show, exhibition, joe, paula roush
