From Sharne Wolff…
If realist painting is supposed to be a truthful depiction of reality, Chris Bond‘s The Language of Fracture has a few surprises in store. For those not familiar with Bond’s work, his new series of seven book paintings appear like photographs at first glance. Photorealism then? Not exactly. Bond makes no attempt to copy something from the real world. His books are actually fictitious creations of the artist, which according to him, are invented to “fill a gap in existence”. By questioning the nature of reality and illusion, Bond also delves into the art historical theory of mimesis and considers the notion of truth in an imitation.
Complete with imaginary authors and publishers, Bond’s non-existent titles such as Derelict Public Art, Psychology of the Lone Hiker and Ruin Decay Collapse: A Pictorial History of End Time Architecture, suggest the potential content of each book. While exploring the fictions of realism and simultaneously playing with layers of falsehood, Bond has been meticulously painting his books’ series for nearly a decade. On occasions he uses Google and, perhaps more curiously given the neatness and order of his work, a soundtrack of metal tunes [the tracks for this show are listed in the catalogue] as background music in the studio.
Until September 20
Darren Knight Gallery, Waterloo
Pic: Chris BondEdith Mayfield 2014oil on canvas24 x 20 x 2.5cm [Photo: Joanne Moloney]. Courtesy the artist and Darren Knight Gallery.
