You are cordially invited to:
Take Away
Private View
& Party

@33 Portland Place
Friday 15 May 2009, 8pm

Labeled by the Times as the temple of promiscuity, and notorious for starring in our vanity-struck era through celebrity parties, infamous pop star and x-rated videos, Sierra Leone's former Embassy is for the first time, embellished with the intellectual band-aid of art and infused with a shot of cultural antidote in a unique attempt to explore art's boundaries in uncharted territory.

For one night only, a group of established and emerging artists enrich a small-scale model of present-day society, in the form of a house charged with a historic legacy and a questionable practice, with painting, sculpture, photography, video and site specific installation, to confront our society's values. By employing contemporary artistic practice that bears elements from the Renaissance to Pop Art as well as architecture, science and pornography, the Take Away project is hoping to discover, how effective can art, and its message, be in an era of expendable ideals.

The hurried, casual and optional nature of 'take away', applied against the old, grand and classic character of the venue, create a juxtaposition equal to the relationship between art and mass art, forgotten ideals and debatable standards. Is art downgraded then to a mere entertaining commodity, or does it become an enhancing and edifying factor, therapeutic to a decadent environment? Will art prevail applied against a reflection of contemporary society's questionable ideals, or is the disease of infotainment so contagious, it will take art 'down' with it?

Emi Avora, Panayiotis Delilabros, Nathaniel Rackowe and Lisa Ross create illusionary works of alternative eras, using the past, the future and the metaphysical as bridges to unite us with distant realities. Society's desire for escapism from a self-perpetuated and repetitively mundane existence is displayed in the form of nostalgic architectural interiors, sophisticated industrial structures, evocative role-playing and spiritual tombs.

Doug Fishbone, Eleana Louka, Augustin Gimel and Eleni Taze use video and photography to challenge the degree of disillusionment most of us choose to live by, on a personal, social and political level. In-your-face explicit content and common elements of the everyday are manipulated as artistic tools in order to generate unease and internal dialogues, for the purpose of promoting both social and individual self-awareness.

Silia Ka Tung, Eleanor Lindsey-Fynn and Angus Sanders-Dunnachie, use pop art and cartoon imagery to momentarily awaken the senses with a smile only to have us ultimately confronted with the aftermath of mockery we discover in the subversive nature of happy-looking imagery within the temple of guilty pleasure.

The exhibition will be followed by a party.
Due to the sensitive nature of the venue, this event is by invitation only.

Please RSVP to the address below for you and your guests.

This project is realized by Maria Nicolacopoulou.

We would like to thank the Carpenters Workshop Gallery London, Rokeby Gallery London and everyone at 33 Portland Place for their support and assistance.