The work of David Griggs is aligned according to a particular terrain that surrounds him, reflecting certain modes of resistance within the riot that is the contemporary world. A convolution of dichotomies – reality vs. fiction, history vs. utopia, autonomy and affiliation – are superimposed and assembled in the crossovers among painting, photography and video.
Grounded on an intense interest in allegory and stereotypes Griggs’ general attraction towards the darker side of life informs his work and consequently, his practice demonstrates an honest commentary on social phenomena that is both sardonic and humorous. What the artist manages to capture is the more esoteric part of daily life and the improvisations necessary to enhance the personal and communal situation. Griggs’ artistic language processes the visualisation of activator as well as the cause and effect of human behavior that construct certain social structures.
In “Privation Under the Palms”, David Griggs presents three new video works – “Banditti”, “Our Motto Apocalypse Now” and “The Sunset Set”. These works depart from the artist’s former videos. Instead, they carry cinematic characters in terms of narrative and presentation. Griggs acts within a net of filmic references as he create scenes that traverse the fine line between myth and reality.
In “Banditti”, he portrays particular effects of colonization in the form of a single character. He operates on the perspective of the alien in the act of abandoning visions and dreams and eventually falling into a corollary resignation.
On an improvised stage in Griggs’ “Our Motto Apocalypse Now”, heirs of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” improvises the monologue delivered by the enlightened character played by Dennis Hopper.
Broaching the subject of the artist’s role as an observer, he mirrors his surroundings and translates issues through artistic devices in “The Sunset Set” where he physically positions himself in the city he lives and works in.
“Privation under the Palms” is David Griggs’ first solo exhibition in Europe and Galerie Zimmermann Kratochwill. Griggs was born in 1975 in Sydney, Australia and migrated to the Philippines in 2005. He has been exhibited extensively in Australia and joined several international groupshows. Works of the artist have first been shown in Austria in the inaugurational show “Inversion of the Ideal” in Galerie Zimmermann Kratochwill in 2011.
David Griggs currently lives and works in Manila, Philippines.
