VENOM VOYAGE - CHRISTELLE OYIRI

Acid pop colours, green slime, cartoonish atmosphere somewhere between corporate offices and Dr. Evil’s villain headquarters… There is a simple but not simplistic dialectic at play in 𝘝𝘌𝘕𝘖𝘔 𝘝𝘖𝘠𝘈𝘎𝘌 — a playful didacticism, almost fun, close to Brecht’s approach on theatre. In his comments on epic theatre, Walter Benjamin suggests that the emergence of political will in an artistic environment comes primarily from the audience’s ability to feel relaxed. It is only under these conditions that astonishment can arise and provoke personal questioning, even engagement. In this evil pop universe, so familiar and yet so eerie, lies a deeper intention to implement in the visitor’s mind: the idea that something is not quite right in what they are looking at. That it’s not so simple, that it can’t be that fun — that it can’t be true, that reality cannot be this absurd.

A Christelle Oyiri book published by KERMESSE and GATHERING on the occasion of 𝘝𝘌𝘕𝘖𝘔 𝘝𝘖𝘠𝘈𝘎𝘌, Oyiri's solo show at Glasshouse - Gathering London, on view from Jan 24 to Feb 22, 2025.

100 pages
17,9x25,3cm

published by KERMESSE and GATHERING
printed in Belgium by die Keure
on Sirio Color Lime and Symbol Freelife Gloss
2025 — first edition of 200 copies