June 2nd to July 8th
Ending soon
Benjamin Slinger’s first solo exhibition at Darren Flook, "Dungeon Inc.," is an immersive journey into a domain where socio-political events and pop culture ephemera intersect with medieval fantasy role-playing games. Slinger's collection of conceptual sculptures and wall-based works construct a complex narrative, unfolding the economic upheavals of the 1980s to the present, blurring the boundaries between personal imagination and the systems of Western capitalism, and the consequences of their disarray.
The matrix of Slinger’s show is the exploration of where Neoliberalism ruptures and ultimately cannibalizes itself.
Illusory Flat Oval 2009/Magical Protective Doorway offers an interesting reading of the Oval Office door within the White House during Obama’s tenure as President, perhaps as an embodiment of cynical notions surrounding the idea of bipartisanship. It hints at the evasion of public scrutiny and accountability, alluding to clandestine manoeuvrings occurring behind the scenes. It is no real surprise that there is an idea of continuity and a status quo, that liberal and conservative are just conflated labels operating under covert forces shaping our socio-political landscapes. The puppet caricature of Reagan from the satirical 80's TV program 'Spitting Image' is seen as a lenticular image titled PATCO Guillotine Reversal/Elven Martyr, the shifting perspectives are pure illusion and deceptive artifice. The Dick Cheney Incident/Constitution Modifier For Being Proud, with its Bush election t-shirt lies prone on the floor with an arrow in the neck, the ghoulish figure dead in repose. Obvious references aside, one wonders about how much kneeling it must have been doing to require protective knee pads (evidently, it was not enough).
The works, Enchanted, Well Lit, Aspirational Dungeon are a series of assorted wall sconces that embody various signs of subordination and hierarchy. Corporate and promotional mugs held by purplish and greenish right hands (sickly, though dressed impeccably in oxford shirts), imply a sense of routine and ritual, workplace drudgery and of being an inconsequential cog in a larger machine. One wonders about the significance of these severed right hands mounted like trophies on the wall mid cheers; perhaps saluting punishment? The lightbulbs in the shape of flames, both associated with enlightenment and symbolic of the pursuit of knowledge and understanding, are conceivably more indicative of mockery through their contrived artificiality.
May the Civilisations I Burn Light the Way/Window Cypher is a collection of mounted and framed trading cards of various political and infamous public figures.Trading cards, commonly associated with collectibles and games, carry symbolic meaning as potential investments or commodities. Embodying concepts of wealth, speculation, and the intricate dynamics of supply and demand, value is assigned and fluctuates based on perceived desirability and scarcity. Politicians (and those in positions in power that are somehow “elevated” in the public’s mind), are reduced to mere trading cards, a critique of societal tendencies to commodify and objectify elected representatives. They are essentially merchandised, disposable entities within these systems of authority.
Benjamin Slinger’s solo exhibition “Dungeon Inc.” is laden with allusions to complex mechanisms involving the dynamics of power and ideas of personal agency; provoking contemplation about the true determinants of individual destiny, expression, and overarching narrative threads within the social spheres we inhabit. The exhibition raises pertinent questions regarding who holds genuine control over personal and collective outcomes when corporate interests permeate our day-to-day existence, wherein society becomes shaped, regulated, and driven by the forces of capital.
Final days, closes Saturday July 8th.
Darren Flook
106 Great Portland St,
London W1W 6PF