Shay Semple
Demarcation Line
January 18 - 29th
Opening Reception Wednesday January 18, 6 - 9 pm
In Demarcation Line Semple appropriates the iconography of antiquated mass culture and repositions it alongside a series of stark lineations to elucidate the increasingly obtuse lines between both national identity and 20th century political ideology in the post-Brexit/Post-Trump West. Vintage Dutch postcards, Celtic borders, gnomes and garden ornamentation, Abba, Kraft caramel apples and old food packaging, working class punk slogans, and 80s cartoons are used to make up a lexicon of Western cultural signifiers assuaging in their familiarity as nostalgic antecedents for the pre-millennial West.
In a popular and much imitated series of pre-war illustrated postcards, Dutch children were depicted innocently navigating through precarious situations of farm animal mutiny, naive declarations of romantic affection and perfunctory philosophical musings set against idyllic backdrops of tulip fields and windmills. As the postcards presented a bucolic facade of Euro homogeneity circa mid century, Semple repurposes the iconography to reflect the seismic changes taken place in past decades and our increasing balkanized culture.
ROMEO 90 Ludlow St.
Friday Saturday & Sunday 12 - 6 pm
