Garrett Pruter: THE BIRDS

13 May-11 Jun 2022

PV 13 May 2022, 6-8pm

Overview

To coincide with the second edition of London Gallery Weekend, Trafalgar Avenue presents a solo exhibition of new work by Garrett Pruter.

The exhibition centres around an ongoing work in which Pruter removes all the birds from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. In the classic 1962 film (based on the short story by Daphne du Maurier), a small seaside community is terrorised by a series of unexplained bird attacks. Through a process of frame-by-frame digital painting, rotoscoping, and sound editing, Pruter recontextualises the film, distorting its narrative by erasing the perceived threat.

For this exhibition, Pruter is showing a series of scenes from the re-edited film including the climactic scene in which crows ominously gather on the playground bars outside an idyllic schoolhouse, unseen by the film’s protagonist until their attack is imminent. In his re-edit, the playground bars remain empty except for fuzzy, erratic fragments left behind by the erasure’s imperfections. Whilst a sense of the threat remains palpable, the source is no longer discernible. Tension builds but is frustratingly never released. Pruter’s The Birds is a contemporary reimagining of the Hitchcock film and a commentary on the fragility of the human psyche. Alongside the video, Pruter will present a selection of new works on paper.

Pruter’s practice revolves around a varying process of erasing, liquifying, and rematerialising images into new iterations. By reconfiguring a growing archive of vernacular photographs, soap operas, erotic thrillers, and objects from his own personal history, Pruter aims to unravel traces of consciousness and desire lying dormant beneath the image’s surface.

Garrett Pruter (b. 1987, Los Angeles) is an American artist living and working in London. He has an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art (2020) and a BFA from Parsons School of Design (2010). Through an interdisciplinary practice of painting, photography, video, and installation, his practice investigates themes of memory, absence, repression, and desire. Previous exhibitions include Picture House, Brigade Gallery (Copenhagen), Cacotopia, Annka Kultys Gallery (London), Generation Loss, Galerie Virginie Louvet (Paris), Traces, Judith Charlies Gallery (New York), and Scripted Spaces, Martos Gallery (Los Angeles).

Press

THE BIRDS | Press Release
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