LUX presented three solo exhibitions by Sebastian Buerkner, Laure Prouvost and Matthew Noel-Tod that examine how image and display function in the public realm.
The Adverts referenced the primary use of public domain and screen surface as a hot, contested space of images. The word ‘advert’ comes from ‘a(d)vertir’ ‘to warn’, changing by the late 18th century to mean ‘call attention to goods for sale, rewards, etc’. Historically then, the advert has moved from a mode of direct, public address to a means for indirect, private sales. This shift, from public use to abstract value, is mirrored in the advert’s referential methods of communication; adverts clamour for attention, fold back on themselves, enter past lives, questioning their very substance in order to further substantiate their validity.
Working alongside the mass of visual material on the Underground and Canary Wharf as an international centre of exchange and commerce,The Adverts looked at the complex relationship between contemporary advertising and political rhetoric. Each solo exhibition featured specially commissioned month long works, exploring and questioning
the representational status of images through interventions into, and an exposition of, the structures they inhabit.
LUX is a national public arts agency for the support and promotion of artists working with the moving image. LUX represents the country’s only significant collection of artists’ film and video and is the largest distributor of such work in Europe.
Canary Wharf Screen was an innovative motion-picture screening programme initiated by Art on the Underground. Presented on one of the capital’s largest public projection screens, this exciting seasonal programme presents leading contemporary and historical artists’ moving image for our customers, staff and visitors free of charge.
