Charlie Billingham Bawlers and Brawlers, 2016-2023
Series of 14 paintings, acrylic on canvas, various dimensions, and wall prints, 2016-2023
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Fabian Lang, Zurich
English artist Charlie Billingham (*1984) explores the psychosomatic effects of the first wave of industrialisation in the late 18th century and thus creates valid metaphors for current discourses on disruption and affiliation. The starting point for Charlie Billingham’s artistic exploration of social disruption is the satirical caricatures of Isaac Cruikshank (1764–1811) and James Gillray (1756–1815), which provide a critical view of living conditions in England and capture the consequences of industrialisation in drastic images. Billingham extracts particularly catchy gestures from these pictorial worlds, enlarges them into the monumental, and with this abstraction points to an overarching question: What social effects emanate from particularly disruptive energies, currently digitalisation and globalisation?
Installation view of Charlie Billingham’s Bawlers and Brawlers, 2016-2023. Photo by Labin Art Express.
Engleski umjetnik Charlie Billingham (*1984.) istražuje psihosomatske učinke prvog vala industrijalizacije krajem 18. stoljeća te stvara valjane metafore za trenutne diskurse o poremećaju i pripadnosti. Polazište za Charlijevo umjetničko istraživanje društvenog poremećaja satirične su karikature Isaaca Cruikshanka (1764. – 1811.) i Jamesa Gillraya (1756. – 1815.), koje daju kritički pogled na tadašnje životne uvjete u Engleskoj i posljedice industrijalizacije prikazuju kroz dramatične slike. Iz njih Billingham izdvaja posebno upečatljive geste i monumentalno ih uvećava, te na taj način postavlja sveobuhvatno pitanje: Koji društveni učinci proizlaze iz posebno razornih energija, trenutno digitalizacije i globalizacije?