abc (art berlin contemporary)15.09.2016–18.09.2016Andrew Gilbert
Sperling at art berlin contemporary 2016, presenting Andrew Gilbert.
Rooted in British military and colonial history, Andrew Gilbert (*1980 in Edinburgh, lives and works in Berlin) critically deals with the British Empire's self-image, the excess of colonialism and the absurdity of war and violence, in general. The artist purposefully interprets historical occurrences and people from a clouded European, cliché-filled, prejudice-laden perspective and its romantic ideas of the exotic. He mixes facts with fictive characters and disturbing violent fantasies, casting a new light on known history while questioning existing prejudices.
The main protagonist of Gilbert’s stage installation is the iconic Zulu king Shaka. The formal juxtaposition of musical, regimental dress, marching music, cabaret dancers and African culture is an obvious one to the artist. At the beginning of the 20th-century, dancing Africans were exhibited in cages as part of colonial exhibitions throughout England and even today Africans still dance for tourists dressed up in costumes, while the romantic cliché of Africa and the Zulu tribe continues to be used in advertising and film. From this Andrew Gilbert develops a personal symbolism of anti-culture, by creating primitive fetish objects from mass products. Gilbert's world is not a black and white one, not one where it is easy to decipher good from evil. The contemporary relevance of his work is its historical background, as well as the viewer's questioning of his or her own prejudices in respect to definitions of 'civilized' and 'primitive'.
