V1 GALLERY PROUDLY PRESENTS
SUMP
A solo exhibition by Shane Bradford
SUMP
“From the grey damp filthiness of ages
White gold and pearls stolen from the sea
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains
Over and over and over and over
Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal
The joy of repetition really is in you
Thereʼs no need to sell your soul
Heʼs already in you
Once more to the breach my friends, once more!
Kneel before the grave – a brave son
Why am I soft in the middle?”
- JShane Bradford 2012
With SUMP Shane Bradford draws from the luscious puddle of cultural history that has been collected discreetly on the plush carpet of modern life. Up to the ankles in the creative novelty that amounts to a cultural inheritance, Bradford subjects the riot of new objects and information to precise formulations of process and order. These material and conceptual interrogations (the notorious ʻdippingʼ process for example) are a means of testing the fractal reality of the mind and the chaos of humanity against the illusion of society and self.
Conscious of the increasing affect of context on the meaning of things, the influence of Time is preempted and accounted for. The temporal status of the work and the exhibition is acknowledged and interwoven, while the boast of masterly authority is graciously suspended in favour of a more candid description of our situation as it stands. Braiding ideas together from myriad strands of thought and practice that seem to congeal at certain points is the holistic work of the contemporary gnomon. Different schools of thought cross one another in what Voodoo culture calls the Kalfou…the crossroads. Which fork you take is less important than the fact of the action itself - of moving. SUMP constitutes a willing manifestation of arguments and actions (ʻhints and allegationsʼ) and concessions to the noble form of what is known as (ʻParklifeʼ) ART.
SUMP is Shane Bradfordʼs (UK, born 1971) second exhibition at V1 Gallery. Bradford has recently shown in London and Munich. He was awarded the Celeste Art Prize in 2007.
