CHRISTOPHER LANGTON ARTIST STATEMENT
Plastic, that perfect polymerisation. Endlessly flowing, growing and changing. A material with manifold applications and usage, I am captivated with its currency as a commodity in mass consumer culture. It is the ideal material to employ as I navigate the conceptual domain of popular culture.
In these works the Pop imagery of my formative years is made abstract and amorphous. The shiny, high-gloss surface still signals desire with its origin on the shopping mall shelf, but it is as if the work has caught a virus, the previous iconic characters undone. The skin of my Pop principles has been peeled back to reveal a glistening, yet raw and swirling toxic tissue beneath, perhaps a symptom of excessive consumerism. The satisfaction of desire in the shopping mall is always temporary before it is replaced with desire for something else. This observation, for me, requires abstract representation. Dolly and Built for comfort are recognition of this epidemic.
‘Like a projection into the future where one witnesses one’s death, the sight of the dimensional depth just the other side of “skin-deep” can debilitate beyond comprehension’ (Philip Brophy, 2003).
The deformed and bloated limbs are testimony to the swoon of social modification. This mapping is therefore as much cartography of mental space as of physical space.
CHRISTOPHER LANGTON BLISTERED
PRESS RELEASE, 2009
Ryan Renshaw Gallery is proud to announce the upcoming exhibition ‘Blistered’ by Christopher Langton. Christopher Langton is a pop sculptor, painter and installation artist who creates blow up toys, and imagery of a future unnervingly reminiscent of our present. In his new exhibition Langton continues to explore the ambiguous nature of real and simulated events.
“Plastic, that perfect polymerisation. Endlessly flowing, growing and changing. A material with manifold applications and usage, I am captivated with its currency as a commodity in mass consumer culture. It is the ideal material to employ as I navigate the conceptual domain of popular culture” (Christopher Langton).
Christopher Langton continues to explore the ambiguous nature of real and simulated events in his new work forBlistered. By reconstructing images captured from computer games and other virtual realities, Langton presents us with works that create a dizzying blur between fact and fiction.
The slick manufacturing of these images generate a reality that is glossy, yet difficult to decipher. Langton plays with this uncertainty by situating figures amongst simulated landscapes, referencing our ability to assume new identities in virtual worlds. Ultimately, it is up to the viewer to reconcile conflicting impressions of illusion and reality and bring into question the authenticity of the scene.
This is all done knowingly by Langton, as our engagement with these works relies upon similar imagery retrieved from current events and popular culture. By pushing and pulling us in and out of different worlds, Langton forces us to reconsider the origins of what we see.
‘The skin of my Pop principles has been peeled back to reveal a glistening, yet raw and swirling toxic tissue beneath, perhaps a symptom of excessive consumerism. The satisfaction of desire is always temporary before it is replaced with desire for something else’ (Christopher Langton).
Christopher Langton’s work makes you feel good, but only sort of…. There is something ominous about his sculptures, despite their bright colours, smiling faces and fun media. They blend playful naivety with a more knowing aesthetic and are highly toxic in nature and highly toxic in effect.
‘Like a projection into the future where one witnesses one’s death, the sight of the dimensional depth just the other side of “skin-deep” can debilitate beyond comprehension’ (Philip Brophy, 2003).