However, Herbert Marcuse’s posits in the work “One Dimensional Man”’ that “advanced industrial society” has created false needs which integrated individuals into the existing system of production and consumption via mass media, advertising, industrial management, and contemporary modes of thought. This results in a “one-dimensional” universe of thought and behaviour in which aptitude and ability for critical thought and oppositional behaviour wither away.

The three artists in this exhibition attempt to define the ‘Self’ and what constitutes an individual within contemporary society, rejecting the temptation and constraints of traditional portraiture to depict the ‘Self’. Instead they will exhibit a myriad of objects within a lexicon of materials and mediums that in the process display prevalent philosophical and psychological discussions as to what constitutes the ‘Self’ within contemporary Western life. Enabling the artists to project themselves within a number of different guises incorporating drawing, performance, poetry and sculpture.

The exhibition will consist of three separate solo presentations for a perio of two weeks, beginning with the artist Edwin Burdis (aka Ed Laliq). Since early 2000 Edwin Burdis (alias Laliq) has contributed to the London scene in particular and to the international music and art world in various artistic personas: As composer and music stage performer he collaborated in groundbreaking art and experimental pop music bands, exploring a unique and extravagant fusion between art, music and subcultural indexes. A highly idiosyncratic style marks Burdis’ recent art practice where he materializes related iconographies in sculptures, drawings and collages.These works are of a peculiar psycho-sexual drive. At times reminiscent of the cartoon-like surreal compositions of Caroll Dunham and the tender boldness of Philip Guston’s figures, Burdis creates characters with disjointed phallic and female forms, a cryptic libidinal world of comicly aggressive mutation. Burdis’ pop-infused work - as biographical as universal – speaks an ill-potent language of narrative punch, intrigue and metaphorical resemblances. Recently Burdis focuses on performance work, presenting specific cultural narratives and his contemporary ‘batchelor machines’ with elements such as recited text, experimental sound editing, live percussion and staged drawing acts.

The material of Anthony Green’s work is representation itself; the works question the problem of how we engage with something that appears superficial and devoid of content. Something that is animated simply by the surface flow of organs and senses, lines of hair, eyes, teeth, money, food, clothes, paint, to the point that the image becomes intensified, proliferated, and ultimately dismantled to a point whereupon the work begins to stutter and become a foreigner in ones own language. Green’s work demands the attention of its audience, presenting problems within the art of representation avoiding the temptation not to render the visible, but to render forces visible.

Barry Macgregor Johnson, lives and works in Los Angeles, his practice consists of a variety of forms including poetry and performance. Johnson generates fictional and poetic scenarios that appear originally as a messy bedroom, or maybe a gritty playground, the dreamscape of this urban asphalt baler contained as much poetry as Symbolist ballads by dandy boulevardiers like Baudelaire and Rimbaud. MacGregor’s contribution to ‘One Dimensional Man’ will consist of an installation of sculptural elements generated from materials gathered in and around the site of the exhibition. On the opening night Johnston will present a new performance within the gallery “environment”.

Each exhibition will be accompanied by a performance by the exhibiting artist.

On the evening of the opening of Barry Macgregor Johnston the IPS will celebrate Christmas in conjunction with Eastside projects that will include a live performance by Edwin Burdis’s most recent musical collaboration, LONGMEG.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a limited edition publication featuring contributions by the exhibiting artists and an essay by Andrew Osbourne.

Click HERE to download exhibition essay