Works and Projects
A selection of different projects
Dig your own grave
Exhibition of video and painting at Kaos Berlin, held on Brexit day, March 29th, 2019
At a time when even world leaders have adopted nihilism, we have found ourselves in a world looking forward to extinction. One where we celebrate selfishness over altruism and cruelty over kindness. One of red, blue and white.
This series of paintings and video works are made in response to such a climate; to the growth of misanthropic individualism, personality obsession, pro-ignorance and anti-science. Where terrifying violence is legitimised by scale and power. Where personal success demands the failure of others.
As a cathartic attempt to exorcise such feelings, this exhibition harnesses anger and absurdity to protest against a self-destructive era in which we feel locked into an inevitable decline.
There is a lot to unpick with these works and i haven’t clarified everything.
I’m happy to answer any questions, just mail me.
This series of paintings and video works are made in response to such a climate; to the growth of misanthropic individualism, personality obsession, pro-ignorance and anti-science. Where terrifying violence is legitimised by scale and power. Where personal success demands the failure of others.
As a cathartic attempt to exorcise such feelings, this exhibition harnesses anger and absurdity to protest against a self-destructive era in which we feel locked into an inevitable decline.
There is a lot to unpick with these works and i haven’t clarified everything.
I’m happy to answer any questions, just mail me.
God hates you
The Union jack
‘Google - What did fruit taste like?’
Nike is an organisation based on modern slavery that aggressively lobbies against unions, workers rights and anything that might possibly allow its majority female workers the basic requirements of life outside the factory walls. Currently it uses many non-white women to advertise its products, with the overarching theme that hard work and sportswear will allow the disadvantaged to climb out of poverty. Considering how much of its own resources it puts into making sure that non-white women around the world are trapped in poverty, it seems a little hypocritical.
The Catholic church is a vast and financially profitable organisation that has, and still does, perpetrate sexual crimes against children on an unprecedented scale. (see also - AIDS epidemic/financial corruption/homophobia/nazi collaboration etc etc....) At the same time preaching moral superiority and casting itself as the arbiters for decency.
Both these organisations are so large, and such concrete pillars of western power that the very idea of reform seems impossible. In fact both of these organisations are literally worshipped. Countless courtcases against the church have had no effect. For nike the anti-corporate movements of the early 2000s had no impact, and i see my whole generation utterly devoted to a brand that is clearly our enemy.
Modern warfare
Headcam footage from Syria
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‘Call of Duty’ video game overlay
This video is the most horrible thing I’ve ever made.
Final Frontiers
Live screen recording of a live streamed ISS space-walk during 2017 eclipse
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a live stream from Everett, US. Where a local business owner set up a camera to film homeless people
Mother Of All Bombs
Footage of the largest non-nuclear bomb dropped ever dropped.
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Audio of the ‘FRB’ fast radio burst, an unusual signal received from space at roughly the same time
Hang the terrorist Nelson MandelaThis is of course not my personal opinion. I don't think even Trump or Farage would say this now. Mandela is in the hall of fame of agreed good guys. But this was of course the view of all rightwing governments during apartheid and this quote comes from the English 'Federation of Conservative Students' who wore this on T-shirts and badges. The group was then chaired by the chairman of the house, John Bercow. Cameron was part of the group at the time, and like all* the rightwing aligned himself with the apartheid government (actually visiting in 1989). You may remember Cameron's speech at Mandela's funeral ( between Obama selfies ) in which he spoke of the bravery and integrity of Mandela, and the inspiration he was to Cameron's own career, which is a little rich considering he was in a group that actively campaigned to have him hung.
So here i've painted this message on to an inverted Union Jack, to ask if we have moved on, what would this government's position on a contemporary Mandela be? I'm certain 'we' would hold an even more aggressive position. The rightwing have always been on the wrong side of history, I wonder when will we stop treating this pathological hatred for humanity and the planet as political opinion and see it for the mental illness that it is.
Dig your own graveThe actions of Coca-cola are terrifying. See the Killer Coke campaign.
End Freedom now
Mobile Strike
Footage from the new video game commercial that former Governer of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, promotes
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ISIS footage of their bomb attacks
Fuck the future
Broadcast your hate
Climate change/earth poisoning is terrifying. Even a few years ago any car journey in summer would end with an
insect graveyard across the bumper. Recently we drove to Greece and back and
didn't clean it once. This catastrophe is already happening. Perhaps the challenges it presents
could be one of the few things that bring our species together in a mutual
survival pact, though i fear that the reality is that we'll just burn
everything. I feel this phrase is powerful because we live in a
world where so many can't believe in the concept of the result of actions and
are denying that the future will happen. It will happen, you can't fuck with
linear time. Broadcast your hate
SelfieScreen recording exploring the #videoselfie on Instagram. Uploaded to Youtube, using the face blur effect
Against People Against People
Rob Blake’s Against People Against People is the inaugural exhibition at East of Elsewhere. The show comprises five sculptures that are a call to action in the run up to Germany’s 2017 election. Using a combination of welded steel, bicycle wheels, spray cans, paint balloons and other found materials, there is a nod to the aesthetic languages of Minimalism and assemblage. However, the works are deeply politicised, having been created in response to the Alternative for Deutschland’s (AfD) posters plastered around Berlin in 2017. They are intended as functional objects of protest to express anger and opposition to right-wing politics.
Reminiscent of primitive Medieval weapons, with their angular lines and crude welding, the sculptures ask the viewer to seize a piece and take it to the streets. Blake fills spray cans and balloons with pink paint, which alludes to the colour and shade used by the Nazi Party to identify and mark homosexuals; these primitive attitudes are subverted in this instance to be used ‘against themselves’ as a means of defacing the alt-right’s communication techniques.
As the sculptures are borrowed and returned, marks of use accumulate. Blake asks whether art objects can also exists as functional tools of protest, questioning the status of these forms and their use value. Ultimately the exhibition insists that the viewer considers their own agency in how to respond to incipient nationalism, encouraging action rather than mere intellectual inquiry, or at worst, apathy.
Words by Camila McHugh from east of elsewhere
Installation Images
East of Elsewhere, Berlin
East of Elsewhere, Berlin
Exhibition Poster
September 22 – October 15, 2017
September 22 – October 15, 2017
