Union

‘Director-star-prankster Damon Packard's apocalyptic comedy-horror ‘Reflections Of Evil’ is full of grotesque, Rabelaisian exaggerations and twists and turns that defy prediction. Ostensibly a story about Bob, an angry obese loser whose daily gorging on greasy food and sweets has shaped him into a hideous, hunched figure, peddling watches, the film is really a manifestation of Packard's interest in stealing or re-creating television footage from what he posits as a more innocent era, the late 1960's and early 70's. juxtaposing it against the hellish violence of the present. Through Bob's eyes we see the world fall apart at the seams as gang thugs and vicious dogs menace him on the benighted streets of downtown L.A. All the while he's haunted by kaleidoscope remembrances of his older hippie sister, flashbacks made to look like vintage Dario Argento, as she joins a cult and OD’s. Now she has returned as a wraith in order to be Bob's guardian angel. Like many outsider artists, Packard's world-view is at once corrosive and childlike, simplistic yet convoluted. However unlike many outsider artists Packard is light years ahead of the competition in both style and vision, it's his single narrative drive that persuade and mesmerize you to keep watching, often with jaw dropped at the scope of it's sheer ambition.’
- L.A. Weekly.

‘Not that it's anything new, but things have changed a bit since the 60's/70's. We've been stuck in the late 80's in a worsening freeze-frame of restrictions, regulations, red tape, fear, fines and punishment. It's over. The world has become one giant mini-mall. One giant jail cell. Join the program, shift your perspective on reality in the right direction or you will face the consequences. We blew it.’ -Damon Packard talking to Colin Ledwith.

UNION is pleased to present a London solo exhibition of cult LA based-filmmaker Damon Packard, featuring a retrospective of Packard’s distinctive fictional trailers which appropriate and revel in the vocabulary of 1970s Hollywood slasher flicks and classic sci-fi pictures. In a nod to mainstream cinema, the ‘main feature’ of the exhibition will be Packard's first movie-length film ‘Reflections Of Evil’ (2002).

Best known for his use of guerrilla marketing tactics to promote 'Reflections of Evil', for which he left over twenty two thousand copies of the DVD around Los Angeles financed by an inheritance from his grandmother, Damon Packard has written, directed, produced and starred in a prolific body of work over the past two decades. Highly influenced by a 1970s b-movie aesthetic, his pessimistic critique of the lack of creativity within the contemporary Hollywood system is seen in all his films: from the attack on George Lucas in his 'Untitled Star Wars Mockumentary' to his playful representation of a young Spielberg in 'Reflections Of Evil'. His films simultaneously pay tribute to influential peers such as Lars Von Trier and Alexander Sukurov.

Born in 1967, Damon Packard lives and works in Los Angeles. Recent exhibitions and screenings include ‘The Thinking’, Sketch Gallery, London (Currently also showing); ‘Best of 2005’, Lincoln Film Center, New York (2005); Redcat Disney Auditorium, Los Angeles; CineSpace Hollywood, Fantasia Fest, ‘Christian Jankowski, Damon Packard, Antoine Prum,’ Art Sheffield 05: Spectator T, Site Gallery, Sheffield (2005); ‘Biennale!’ BizArt, Shanghai & Temporary Contemporary, London (2005); Filler Gallery, Northampton (2005) and ‘Romantic Detachment’, PS1, New York & Grizedale Arts, London (2004).