Eddie Peake
06 Mar - 21 Apr 2013
EDDIE PEAKE
Adjective Machine Gun
6 March – 21 April 2013
Please note that the performance contains some nudity.
White Cube is pleased to present ‘Adjective Machine Gun’, an exhibition and ongoing performance by London based artist Eddie Peake. To date, Eddie Peake has established a multi-faceted and energetic practice that manifests itself through a wide variety of media including photography, painting, neon sculpture and performance. Exploring the realms of voyeurism, sexuality and gender, Peake is a bold interventionist, attracting his audience’s attention by adopting a variety of cultural references, pop motifs, anarchic humour and spectacle.
For Inside the White Cube, Peake has created his first major sculptural installation, closely modelled on the now decommissioned penguin pool at ZSL London Zoo, an iconic modernist structure designed by architect Berthold Lubetkin in 1934. The structure acts as an amphitheatre or arena in which Peake, working with a group of dancers and musicians, will publicly develop a performance over the course of the exhibition.
Peake describes the exhibition as ‘the first occasion that I will present a performance work in tandem with static object works, the two elements having thus far remained physically separate. I want to focus on the process of devising a dramatic performance work, and the weirdness implicit in trying to do that in the context of an art gallery.’
The performances will extend to the outer areas of the structure where a number of Peake’s artworks have been installed. A variety of text messages, slogans or, at times, despairing tag lines, such as Crushingly Hopeless, Haywire Spine Flwr or Dead Ur Lovers emerge through diffused layers of powder coating and spray paint from polished stainless steel sheets. This use of language continues in a series of poster/panel compositions which feature black and white photographs of a naked couple overlaid with a series of vibrantly painted panels spelling out single words or phrases that teasingly enhance the tangibly erotic subject matter.
The exhibition will also include a group of abstract sculptures in concrete and highly polished off-white plaster which suggest limbs or bones. A series of neon sculptures, including The Baddest Badman (2013), introduces the character of a muscular faun who is to become a recurring persona in the artist’s work, changing and evolving over time.
A catalogue, with texts by Roger Cook and Clover Peake, will be published to accompany the exhibition.
The artist will be present in the gallery each week from Thursday to Sunday.
Born in London 1981, Eddie Peake has lived in Jerusalem, Rome and London. Having graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2006, he undertook a residency at the British School at Rome from 2008 to 2009. He is currently completing his Master’s degree at the Royal Academy Schools, London. Recent performance projects in London include: The David Roberts Art Foundation (2012), The Tanks, Tate Modern in conjunction with the Chisenhale Gallery (2012); The Royal Academy of Arts (2012) and Cell Project Space (2012). International solo exhibitions include Mihai Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles (2011), Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, Rome (2012) and a two-man exhibition with Prem Sahib at Southard Reid, London (2012). On 9 March 2013, the artist will be part of the symposium ‘The Contemporary Body’ at the ICA, London. Peake will also have a solo exhibition opening on 27 April 2013 at Focal Point Gallery, Southend.
Adjective Machine Gun
6 March – 21 April 2013
Please note that the performance contains some nudity.
White Cube is pleased to present ‘Adjective Machine Gun’, an exhibition and ongoing performance by London based artist Eddie Peake. To date, Eddie Peake has established a multi-faceted and energetic practice that manifests itself through a wide variety of media including photography, painting, neon sculpture and performance. Exploring the realms of voyeurism, sexuality and gender, Peake is a bold interventionist, attracting his audience’s attention by adopting a variety of cultural references, pop motifs, anarchic humour and spectacle.
For Inside the White Cube, Peake has created his first major sculptural installation, closely modelled on the now decommissioned penguin pool at ZSL London Zoo, an iconic modernist structure designed by architect Berthold Lubetkin in 1934. The structure acts as an amphitheatre or arena in which Peake, working with a group of dancers and musicians, will publicly develop a performance over the course of the exhibition.
Peake describes the exhibition as ‘the first occasion that I will present a performance work in tandem with static object works, the two elements having thus far remained physically separate. I want to focus on the process of devising a dramatic performance work, and the weirdness implicit in trying to do that in the context of an art gallery.’
The performances will extend to the outer areas of the structure where a number of Peake’s artworks have been installed. A variety of text messages, slogans or, at times, despairing tag lines, such as Crushingly Hopeless, Haywire Spine Flwr or Dead Ur Lovers emerge through diffused layers of powder coating and spray paint from polished stainless steel sheets. This use of language continues in a series of poster/panel compositions which feature black and white photographs of a naked couple overlaid with a series of vibrantly painted panels spelling out single words or phrases that teasingly enhance the tangibly erotic subject matter.
The exhibition will also include a group of abstract sculptures in concrete and highly polished off-white plaster which suggest limbs or bones. A series of neon sculptures, including The Baddest Badman (2013), introduces the character of a muscular faun who is to become a recurring persona in the artist’s work, changing and evolving over time.
A catalogue, with texts by Roger Cook and Clover Peake, will be published to accompany the exhibition.
The artist will be present in the gallery each week from Thursday to Sunday.
Born in London 1981, Eddie Peake has lived in Jerusalem, Rome and London. Having graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2006, he undertook a residency at the British School at Rome from 2008 to 2009. He is currently completing his Master’s degree at the Royal Academy Schools, London. Recent performance projects in London include: The David Roberts Art Foundation (2012), The Tanks, Tate Modern in conjunction with the Chisenhale Gallery (2012); The Royal Academy of Arts (2012) and Cell Project Space (2012). International solo exhibitions include Mihai Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles (2011), Galleria Lorcan O’Neill, Rome (2012) and a two-man exhibition with Prem Sahib at Southard Reid, London (2012). On 9 March 2013, the artist will be part of the symposium ‘The Contemporary Body’ at the ICA, London. Peake will also have a solo exhibition opening on 27 April 2013 at Focal Point Gallery, Southend.