Modernity and technology are words we keep repeating to ourselves to reassure that we are living in a better world than our ancestors. However no one can deny that we have reached an uneasy balance that fluctuates and sometimes breaks as shown by the volcanic explosions in Island. From time to time the forces of nature remind us that we are only humans totally powerless despite the super safe airplanes and giant boats.

The ambiguity between power and weakness that defines the human being is very well represented in this exhibition, according to Ben Austin – curator of  Unnatural Selection “We live in dark times. Our relationship with our environment is ambivalent.” The plurality and diversity of the artists exposed, herald the fact that the topic chosen is universal.  If Darwin’s theory offers a brutal scenario based on survival and extinction, Unnatural Selection has a softer approach questioning the connection between distortion and perversion.

Each artist represented at The Londonewcastle Project Space have their own phantasmagorical view on the world, Caroline List links tropical paradises with icy landscapes, Adam Ball paints fantastic places of a “could be” world when Freya Douglas-Morris invokes the past with her paint brush.

Clear reference to science fiction paired with a nod to natural romanticism via Caspard David Friedriech ‘s work, we found ourselves in a sublime realm.

Robert Soning of Londonewcastle, summarises well what that show is all about: “the show is to explore the dynamic and changing nature of the environment”; of course the Shoreditch location of the Project Space is perfect to host such an art happening.

Unnatural Selection
28th May – 13th June
Londonewcastle Project Space
28 Redchurch Street, E2 7DP

Sources: www.unnatural-selection.co.uk

Text by Delphine Hervieu.