"He thought the world's heart beat at some terrible cost and that the world's pain and its beauty moved in a relationship of diverging equity and that in this headlong deficit the blood of multitudes might ultimately be exacted for the vision of a single flower.” Cormac McCarthy
Diastr, Phoenix Brighton
And here is the starting point for this exhibition ..... it's the undercurrent, it's the anxiety, it's feeling like a small player in the big scheme…feeling vulnerable and being vulnerable … sharing in the events that befall all of us at one time or another … sometimes it seems, beneath, or even in the midst, of the rhythms of everyday life, we live on the edge of an abyss.
The philosopher Slavoj Zizek has pronounced that we are "living in the end times" with the four horsemen of his coming apocalypse named: the worldwide ecological crisis; imbalances within the economic system; the biogenetic revolution that calls into question the ownership of even our human identity; and the erection of new walls between countries and within countries, and he asks whether there is a new form of collective activity that might escape the coming storm?
Philip Cole and Alistair Duncan brought together a very diverse group of artists with a range of experience whose work confronted these issues – sometimes head-on, sometimes humorous, or personal, or irreverent. When it seems beyond the capability of humanity to respond to the crisis of their own making... then this exhibition was timely.
Diastr, drawn from the game created by Tim Cole and Theo Lamarche, had two strands. An opening night: a carnival of the game played live, sculpture, pictures, spoken word, sound, film; drawn together by video relays and unexpected happenings. Followed by the two week exhibition, where the work lived on in a more reflective form. We hope that it will live on further amongst the pages of this site!!
Diastr featured work by the following artists: Tim Cole, Theo Lamarche, Shaun Doyle & Mally Mallinson, Neil Taylor & Harriet Murray, Tim Corrigan, Collective-Era, Julian Vilarrubi, Kate Duncan, Mike Stoakes, John Croft, Tom Cole, Eve Lloyd Knight, QЏΞSŤ?ΩИS И ŤHΛŤ, Amy Wolfe, Sam Leedam, Marley Cole, Philip Cole, Ju Row Farr, Kingston University 3rd Year Animation Students, Simon Champion, Alistair Duncan and also factory contributors: Mocksim, Anthony Murphy, Jethro Leonard, Ged Duncan, Coz Smith, HRT, Adam Lygo, Simon Cole, Japhy Turner, Helena Waters, Verity Combe and many other helpers and volunteers from Phoenix Brighton and beyond.
A selection of some of the work exhibited during Diastr >> click on the images above to view slideshow
A selection of Images taken during Diastr the event >> click on the images above to view slideshow
The Charlie Suite by Shaun Doyle & Mally Mallinson, for links to Doyle and Mallinson, click here >>>
'The Butterfly effect' by Amy Wolfe, featured at Diastr: to see more work by Amy click here >>>
'The Lighthouse keeper' and 'Getting it On' by Harriet Murray and Neil Taylor, for links to Taylor & Murray's site; Campbell works click here >>>
'Plug', 'Cracks', 'gulP' and 'Hatching an Idea' by Mike Stoakes were featured at Diastr. To see more work by Mike click here >>>
'Boring Ice Island' by Eve Lloyd Knight was featured at Diastr. To see more work by Eve click here >>>
'Batman and Robin' and 'Ziggy' by John Croft were featured at Diastr. To see more work by John and other Project Art Works artists click here >>>
'Shed' by Kate Duncan' was featured at Diastr. To see more work by Kate click here >>>
'A selection of responses to diastr' by QЏΞSŤ?ΩИS И ŤHΛŤ. To see more work click here >>>
'Petrol Seller', 'You might think that', 'Be Careful','Stock' and 'Countdown' by Philip Cole were also featured in Diastr.