Where: White Walls Gallery
Event Date: May 11, 2013
Location: 886 Geary Street · San Francisco, CA
Exhibit Dates: May 11 - June 1
For more details: http://www.whitewallssf.com/
White Walls is pleased to present Control, a solo show by Nick Flatt. The opening reception will be held Saturday, May 11, 2013 from 7-11pm with the exhibit free and open to the public through June 01, 2013.
At its core, Nick Flatt’s Control is a response to Guy Debord’s book Society of the Spectacle, where Debord expounds that authentic experience has been subverted by the mere representation of it, outlining the spectacle as a system fed by the mass media’s control of images and the social relationship people have with these images.
Flatt opens a dialogue on the pseudo needs and boundless pursuit of gratification this type of system has supported with a series of 5ft x 7ft oil paintings which depict models sporting necklaces that read “MORE” resting on their chests. Three different 10 layered stencils displayed in duplicate form comment on the production and commodification of desire, the fact that, in Debord’s words “In a consumer society, social life is not about living, but about having […]”
By placing the stereotypical ideals of beauty used in advertisements, and showing specifically, without illusion, what is being sold, Flatt attempts to draw attention to how art, sex, and even rebellion are reduced to commodities. A grandiose installation, featuring a crushed and glittered car, reflects the realization that the American dream might all be a hoax, with no easy way out.