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WOTSIT ALL ABOUT: James Ostrer

Past exhibition
31 July - 11 September 2014 London
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Overview
WOTSIT ALL ABOUT, James Ostrer

Gazelli Art House presents, Wotsit all about?

As part of the Window Project, Gazelli Art House will present the commissioned photographic works by National Portrait Gallery Curator’s Choice, artist James Ostrer, from the 30th July 2014. The images, referencing icons of contemporary sugar worship, Ostrer’s imagined result of a corrupted globalization and increasingly dangerous methods of food production, will occupy the glass facade of the gallery and spread over the ground floor. A glimpse into a post apocolyptic world which has been destroyed by mass production, we are encouraged to question the decisions that are made for us: Wotsit all about?

 

James Ostrer’s photographs of sugar adorned subjects allude to the history of primitive art, synthetic dietary sugar intake, and an irreverent twist on the absurd in which societal practices of ingestion oscillate into a nightmarish world of abject effrontery and nutritional disillusionment.

 

The works are feverishly and painstakingly created tableaus with layers of sweets and foodstuffs being applied to a human subject, often the artist himself, which, when staged, are photographed and patterned for re-consumption through the distribution of photographic practice. Speaking largely on the twentieth and twenty first centuries’ dietary concerns and sugar’s uncomfortable place within this, Ostrer’s photographs conjure metaphorical allegories as Ketchup flows as tears down frosted cheeks and Kit Kats’ mouths bark back with menacing grimaces. This adornment becomes a mask of what we eat which then becomes entwined with a hyper-pop sensibility and an obsequious inquiry into the great volumes of sugar that flow through our bodies.

 

Much like Paul McCarthy’s or George Condo’s seminal works, the photographs form a bizarre pattern of tribalism and cartoon-like absurdity. They are rife with a sense of ritual endeavour and colour-saturated sensitivity; a palpitating nostalgia for the sweets we are presented with and the potential havoc they wreak within our collective bodies.

 

The works become a catalogue of self- destructive behaviours, and are also managed in such a way that while transgressing themselves as odes to great works of historical art practice, they become re-packaged eye candy for uncomfortable consumption. They are bittersweet to the point of decay and emphasize much of our contemporary society’s needs for synthetic glucose praise, and, in doing so, proselytize the image as a new catalogue of self-harming sugar worship. 

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Works
  • James Ostrer, EF 117, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 117, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 122.25, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 122.25, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 124, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 124, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 125.5, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 125.5, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 126.75, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 126.75, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 127.5, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 127.5, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 127.6, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 127.6, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 133.2, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 133.2, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 135.16, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 135.16, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 135.3, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 135.3, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 137, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 137, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 137.63, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 137.63, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 126.5, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 126.5, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 113, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 113, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 145.6, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 145.6, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 137.8, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 137.8, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 142.6, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 142.6, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 137.632, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 137.632, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 145.4, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 145.4, 2014
  • James Ostrer, EF 148.66, 2014
    James Ostrer, EF 148.66, 2014
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News
  • JAMES OSTRER: SUGAR | SEPTEMBER 2014

    JAMES OSTRER: SUGAR | SEPTEMBER 2014

    In the final week of the show Wotsit All About, artist James Ostrer was joined by Tristram Stuart (Feeding the 5k), Katharine Jenner (Action on...
    Read more
  • JAMES OSTRER | AESTHETICA | AUGUST 2014

    JAMES OSTRER | AESTHETICA | AUGUST 2014

    Click here to read full article
    Read more
  • JAMES OSTRER | 20 MINUTOS | AUGUST 2014

    JAMES OSTRER | 20 MINUTOS | AUGUST 2014

    Click here to read full article
    Read more
  • JAMES OSTRER | NPR | AUGUST 2014

    JAMES OSTRER | NPR | AUGUST 2014

    Click here to read full article
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  • JAMES OSTRER | MIXED GRILL | AUGUST 2014

    JAMES OSTRER | MIXED GRILL | AUGUST 2014

    Click here to read full article
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  • JAMES OSTRER | PUBLIMETRO | AUGUST 2014

    JAMES OSTRER | PUBLIMETRO | AUGUST 2014

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  • JAMES OSTRER | PSFK | AUGUST 2014

    JAMES OSTRER | PSFK | AUGUST 2014

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  • JAMES OSTRER | THE UPCOMING | AUGUST 2014

    JAMES OSTRER | THE UPCOMING | AUGUST 2014

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  • JAMES OSTRER | POLITIKEN | AUGUST 2014

    JAMES OSTRER | POLITIKEN | AUGUST 2014

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  • JAMES OSTRER | THE TELEGRAPH LUXURY | AUGUST 2014

    JAMES OSTRER | THE TELEGRAPH LUXURY | AUGUST 2014

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  • JAMES OSTRER | CO.DESIGN | JULY 2014

    JAMES OSTRER | CO.DESIGN | JULY 2014

    Click here to read full article
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  • JAMES OSTRER | ARTDAILY.ORG | JULY 2014

    JAMES OSTRER | ARTDAILY.ORG | JULY 2014

    Click here to read full article
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Related artist

  • James Ostrer

    James Ostrer

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