Opening reception Friday 18th June, 6-8pm
Daily viewing Sat 19th - Wedn 23rd June, 12-8pmThe exhibition comprises of old and new works and covers the work of almost a decade. At the turn of the millennium when Immanuel was studying for a degree in fine art. The Artists revelation and story of endurance, through his experience with deep psychosis, triggered by a number of events in his studies at the time, most notably the twin towers attacks in 2001.
Paintings in Oil, Sculpture and multimedia. Deeply personal and symbolic art. Works, intertwined with delusion and reality mixed together to try to evoke an emotional response. A decade of art to bring peace by design and closure to the soul.It is in his work presented At the Back Loft that Immanuel will portray through his paintings "some strange and even magic happenings that go far beyond any idea of mere coincidence".Poignantly Immanuel stated regarding his exhibition that in all his academic initiation in his college years, the greatest qualification that he attained was not an institute’s certificate of graduation but the “degree of insanity”.Even his childhood nickname “Gough” is a clue to the artists sense of self identity. This is the reason why he claims there is no such thing as an accident in art.
The work, consisting of a number of paintings, sculpture and videos, are chronological Insights into the onset of an individual’s psychosis. These, in his eyes are said to be the key to shamanic holy awakening and the source of all visions. Ultimately he says regarding the work, "The exhibition is the culmination of the whole venture of modern art and is likened to the closing of a history book and the beginning of a new journal that will be shared by all people regardless of who they are and what they formally believed about themselves in the past". Many of the works, as with any experience of trauma, are deeply subjective and portray a less ordinary personal biography that is laced with metaphor and symbolism rooted in a realm past the boundaries of what is generally accepted as normal and true today.
The artist hopes to invoke his audience into a new line of questioning as to where we came from and where we are destined to be in a possible future. Along side this aspiration is a paradoxical fear that the vision found in this exhibition is more than just his fantastic delusion. The future set out before us is carved in the very stone presented by the artist. This white stone Immanuel claims “is the key to our beginning and the omen to the end of ‘the Individual”. The artist illustrates through his personal experience, embodied in his work, a need to change the spiritual path that the world is on today. The answer, Immanuel says, is in the images and those who make them.
