<>= Exhibition Review
Brendan Fox, <>=, Video Still (2015)
Brendan Fox’s Lesser, greater equal (<,> =) opened at the NAG Gallery on March 5th and runs till March 20th.The Video installation includes four still posters of a pervious performance.
For those of you who have never been to the NAG Gallery it shares the building with the Cross gallery you enter the exhibition space down the staircase to your right just pasted the coffee shop at the front. There are two rooms in the gallery the first one you enter from the stairs contained 4 posters still images from a previous performance some of these edges were faired an torn giving me a sense of being re-shown. The second room beside showed a full wall projected video installation of a staged performance of a man’s struggle with his demons which deeply effect him psychologically the emotions build over time eventually manifesting themselves into physical outbursts.
Walking into this exhibition choosing not to read any information from the artist or gallery about the exhibition as I always do, this struggle between how we deal with who we are seen by others and how we deal with issues arising from this was clear. I only found out afterwards the video is made up of four different performances by fox over time which all worked cohesively as a narrative of the different aspects of this man’s torment. If I had one criticism it would be the presentation of the installation, the speaker wires were very untidy and could have been made look better for the overall presentation of the installation, but it’s a very small thing which I only notice as I also struggle with the use of speakers and wires in my work sometimes. This exhibtion is well worth a visit for anyone interested in theatrical/artist performance or video installation.
"Looking back, as a kid I felt backed into a corner, I spent the first 23 years of my life pretending to be something I wasn't, the psychological residue of that self-inflicted falsehood is endless. I feel like a fake in everything I do. I am always waiting for someone to point me out in a crowd and scream fraud. This work is an attempt to expose that shit, and yeah, I'm fucking angry" – Brendan Fox
Fox works as both a theatre practitioner/director and visual artist. He works predominantly in the medium of video but his work often encompasses painting, performance and large scale installations. His last solo show took place at The Cross Gallery, Dublin 2013. At present he is represented by the Nag Gallery Dublin.