An artist residing in London, dedicated to exploring the themes surrounding recent political protests and various forms of autonomous subcultural uprisings, such as Hip Hop and Rave cultures. My main focus revolves around the subsequent dissemination of these movements through media and the subsequent recuperation. Through my work, which encompasses video scratch collage, installations, and interventionist performances, I utilize alter egos, the grotesque, and cartoonist parody as powerful tools for commenting on the decline of authenticity, particularly in relation to riots transformed into spectacles.
The production of the video ‘Riot’ was born out of my experiences during the G20 demonstrations against the financial system in 2008, which took place at the prestigious Bank of England. It was during this time that the world economy began its descent into recession. The demonstration felt like an exaggerated, stadium-scale specter on a grand film set. Forward intelligence police units were closely monitoring and documenting activists who, in turn, documented the actions of the police. This endless cycle of impotent documentation, accompanied by the ominous drone of surveillance helicopters overhead, formed the backdrop for the events. ‘Riot’ delves into the historical and contemporary state of protest, representing the never-ending cycle of civil unrest experienced second-hand through the lens of the media. It reinforces the diffusion of aggression and passivity. The concept behind the video has evolved into largescale performance riots, such as ‘Chamber music for the disenfranchised’ and ‘Prague Uprising.’ These performances, set to a live punk soundtrack, aim to encourage assembled crowds to actively engage physically with footage of riots within the confines of an institutional location.
Following the completion of my Fine Arts MA at Goldsmiths, my video and performance piece, ‘Riot,’ gained recognition, and I was selected to participate in the European-wide Start Point prize. Eventually, I secured the overall prize in the Czech Republic at GASK, which led to my first solo exhibition at GAVU Cheb in 2011. Elizabeth Price, a prominent figure in the art world, selected my video work for the Selected Tour, which included a screening of ‘Jobseekers’ at the Whitechapel Gallery in 2012. My video work ‘The Delinquents’ was curated by renowned collage video artist George Barber for the Reality Check exhibition at the South London Gallery in 2012. Additionally, it was showcased at the Moscow International Biennale for Young Art in the same year. In 2013, I organized the video collage exhibition ‘Bunker Mentality’ in a disused World War II bunker, which featured ‘Riot Act SE6,’ a live performance reenactment based on Crimewatch footage from the 2011 London riots.
www.ftn-books.com has the 2011 galerie Vytvarneho now available.
