Juan James Sydney Simon: Papillon et Merci et au Revoir | Liz Rowe: Never Too Careful | Max Bellamy: 99 Ways to Solve Global Warming

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The Blue Oyster is pleased to present Juan James Sydney Simon: Papillon et Merci et au Revoir, Liz Rowe: Never Too Careful and Max Bellamy: 99 Ways to Solve Global Warming, at 5:30pm on Tuesday 2 November at the Blue Oyster. With these shows the artists confront us with contemporary social and environmental problems and the barriers to change that continue to exist. Their works stand as a challenge to revise set patterns of thinking and doing and a provocation to look for solutions at a personal level. The exhibitions run until the 27 of October.

For his exhibition Papillon et Merci et au Revoir, Juan James Sydney Simon has shredded and purged himself of every document from his personal life from the last eight years; everything from bills to love letters, everything that makes up the swarm of paper that swirls around modern life. This mass of paper scraps bursts out through a wall and into the gallery with the jovial fanfare of a confetti shower. Standing sentinel over this scene are two allegorical objects: a taxidermied black bird and a glass skull filled with paper. As reminders of our fragile existence, they cast an ominous shadow, repositioning the spread of paper as a comment on the excesses of consumption and waste in contemporary society. Simultaneously cynical and loving, Simon's work sounds the warning that it is not too late for us to take action. Simon has also undertaken a satellite project at nearby cafe Mazagran, which will be on show first two weeks of the exhibition.

Liz Rowe has constructed a wall of soap for her project Never Too Careful. Positioned to obstruct the usual path trodden through the gallery, Rowe aims to challenge our perceptions of place and space and especially territorialised notions of identity, belonging and security. Her barrier of soap and cleanliness evokes post 9/11 border security paranoia and immigration policies grounded in the xenophobic fear of being overwhelmed by torrents of 'the great unwashed masses'. Using the iconically kiwi brand of Sunlight soap Rowe brings this message home. Visually similar to residential building bricks, she shows these ideas operating in the suburban obsession with domestic cleanliness and tacit homogeneity. Sounds of people moving around on the other side of the wall echo out, leaving viewer to wonder whether they are on the right side or the wrong side, whether they are on the inside or the outside and whether the other side is perhaps a better place to be.

Max Bellamy has co-opted the seductive vernacular, decadence and high production values found in advertising for his photographic series 99 Ways to Solve Global Warming. He uses this style to introduce an ambivalent questioning of posited market-driven solutions to climate change. His large, lush and detailed photographs draw attention to the inherent social and human factors at work with this issue that is often described in scientific terms. The play between each image resists a straight narrative reading and denies any kind of dogmatic assertion about which is the 'best' way forward. Bellamy has instead formed images of problems bearing potential solutions and solutions wound up in problems. Using old and slow photographic technology Bellamy, through his very methodology and approach, advocates slowing down and taking time to look at every detail and exploring old and forgotten processes for new potential.