Scott King, De-Regeneration

In this solo exhibition at Spacex, Scott King presents a body of recent work that deals almost exclusively with notions of public art and its role within urban regeneration.

Presented as a series of prints, Anish and Antony Take Afghanistan, 2014, employs humour to explore the astonishing power of public art that has long been recognised by both western governments and ‘big business’ alike. With increasingly large public sculptures being commissioned to ‘regenerate’ ailing post-industrial areas, King asks, ‘what if this strategy were employed in an attempt to turn around the fortunes of a whole country?’ This work proposes a scenario in which two giants of British public art are commissioned by the United Nations in a last ditch attempt to solve the social, financial, and political problems of Afghanistan.

Other works included in the exhibition are inspired by government ideologies of regeneration in post-industrial Britain. Long Live Death, 2012, sees the artist place Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North atop Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, London. Totem Motif, 2014, features a ‘found’ photograph from 1964 showing two young women admiring a recently erected Henry Moore public sculpture in the ‘new town’ of Harlow, Essex. In the series of photographs A Balloon for Britain, 2012, King imagined that the current Conservative government had offered him millions of pounds to devise a scheme that would regenerate Britain’s 10 poorest towns and cities. The result, an idea to float 50 metre tall party balloons across each of these 10 poverty stricken areas. King adds, ‘market research shows that of the 100 people asked to express a ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ balloon opinion, 67 people said they welcomed the idea, 29 thought it was potentially hazardous to both motorists and aircraft and 4 people said they did not care either way’.

For more information visit http://www.spacex.org.uk/