Savage : Presents Jean Michel Jarre

22 Oct-27 Nov 2011

Overview

Savage is the recipient of the 2011 Rootstein Hopkins award, offering a promising Bristol based artist his or her first major solo exhibition. Savage's work engages with the culture of consumerism, apparently affirming and even celebrating it, yet with such a degree of futility and emptiness that ultimately it is negated. Here, Savage knowingly addresses the context of the award by presenting his own situation — that of the artist being packaged and promoted by the gallery system — as part of a market driven culture overly concerned with novelty and spectacle. A video at the entrance of the exhibition formed the artist’s application for the award. Adopting documentary language, the work introduces ideas that served as starting points for the exhibition and his initial proposal for the project: a performance by Jean Michel Jarre in Bristol.