Artist: Dominic Samsworth
Exhibition title: Very Soirée
Venue: Howard St, New York, US
Date: April 10 – May 10, 2015
Photography: The Still House Group, images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Howard St, New York
Presentation is everything when it comes to temporary sophistication. There are the champagnes, the calligraphy, the thread counts, all of which qualify for but a few hours. This elaborate act of deception is as calibrated as it is repeatable. The exercise is choreographed and rehearsed until it is bleached and washed out.
The curvatures and orthogonals from a suite of canvases are based upon stock design templates for swimming pools found in online catalogues. Cropped from the inventory of backyard paradises, the renderings are exposed for their abstract formal arrangements.
In the company of unceremonious baggage from an evening’s affair, the pools hang as remnant trimmings from an after hours function. Their protruding forms are surrounded by the mercenary entourage of privileged outsourcing, rented accoutrements which are permitted to linger, bearing the stains and scars of a thousand soirées.
The scene presents itself as an inverted preview, debuting the undertow of glamour since passed. All that remains are the backstage ephemera, pushed forward to the front of house for judgement as they aspire to the heights of leisure. The back patio is now emptying as the guests pick their ways to the exit. The conclusion of the routine has just begun.
Text by The Still House Group
Dominic Samsworth (b. 1987, Wiltshire, UK) studied at Glasgow School of Art and is a former participant from The Still House Group residency program. He has had solo exhibitions at SWG3, Glasgow (2014); MonCHÉRI, Brussels (2014); Jan Kaps Galerie, Cologne (2014); and The Still House Group, New York (2014). Group exhibitions include The Zabludowicz Collection, London (2015); Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle (2015), MonCHÉRI, Brussels (2014); David Dale Gallery, Glasgow (2011); The Duchy Gallery, Glasgow (2010).
