The composition of yesteryear
- Source: Global Times
- [13:59 June 29 2010]
- Comments
It is a nice set-piece, but does not engage on any substantial level. Its connection to the overall theme is also slightly tenuous.
Robert Davis' pieces take the utopian ideals of original propaganda posters as their basis. His reproductions have shrunk the originals to postcard size, adding paint, newspaper headlines and text, to inject contemporary themes.
Though there is certainly merit here, the compositions seem a little too easy, a little too obvious. One sentence of the added text simply reads: "The rise in production costs," which we are supposed to associate with a group of idealized workers.
Another piece comments on the conflict between traditionalism and modernism (destruction of old buildings; the rise of the skyscrapers) within the city - a worthy topic, but one taken up by many art-ists at present, and it is quickly becoming a cliché.
That the exhibition is dominated by the obvious target of the propaganda poster is reinforced by Alexandrine Dévé's update of a poster entitled Today We Play by the Pond, Tomorrow We Defend the Coast, the original of which features a group of cherubic children playing with battleships.
In her neatly painted reproduction some contemporary characters have been added: the mistress, the migrant worker and the nouveau riche.
This piece, along with a number of others on display, generates the overall impression of an exhibition that doesn't quite get to grips with a theme worthy of an extensive and complex investigation.
Date: Until August 15, 10 am to 6 pm
Venue: OV Gallery
Address: Unit 3, 19 Shaoxing Road 绍兴路19号3单元
Admission: Free
Call 5465-7768 for details
