Gazelli Art House are no longer accepting applications for the latest Window Project. We are delighted to announce that the winning window design is White People Are Scary #2.
White People Are Scary #2 premiered at the Enter Through The Headset 2 exhibition, and seeks to reverse the indoctrinated fear of the ‘dark’ outsider looking in.
Jonny Tanna and the collective 419 Inc. have personified the white insider looking out. Playing with the Gazelli Art House setting in Mayfair, these characters embody the fear the collective grew up with, the embodiment of the ruling elite.
419 Inc. participants include:
Lara Joy Evans
Saideh Yazea
Miro Arva
Jon Arbuckle
Project Description: White People Are Scary #2 – The West Is A Bootleg
We are currently experiencing a global crisis, islamaphobia and racist attacks are rising significantly following an ongoing persistent media onslaught and governmental persecution of muslims post 9/11.
Desensitised by the media, whilst also fearing the invisible hand of capitalism that feeds it. We fear people looking in from the darkness, through our windows.
We decided to approach this project with a subtle approach that counteracts the current trend for shouty anti-trump memes which only serve to further his publicity and therefore his agenda.
In Mayfair, unnerving figures will appear in the gallery windows. Seeking to reverse the indoctrinated fear of the ‘ dark’ outsider looking in, we show the white insider looking out.
Playing with the galleries setting in Mayfair, these characters embody the fear we grew up with, the embodiment of the ruling elite.
A gentle brainwash flies under the radar (having inherent respect, and high regard for any older white male, no matter how cretinous, and only recently asking why?)
The bootleg aspect reflects the collectives work with video piracy and their previous documentation of exhibitions, in the noughties, where there was scant video documentation.
The Western World currently bootlegs identity as it appropriates other cultures, lacking it’s own firm identities it seeks to fill a void by making all identities an equal commodity (note to hipsters: drinking beer sat on-top of beer crates or eating Mexican food in a faux cantina doesn’t count as a genuine cultural experience).
However, this project is a sensitive exploration, not a scathing attack on anyone, highlighting that we should not inhabit any fear towards anyone and reflecting an overlooked image.
Jonny Tanna
B. 1980 London based artist Jonny Tanna, working within his limitations, creates pieces that are both viable and break new grounds in art and digital entertainment. Primarily known for his street photography, Tanna is a multi-disciplinarian whose practice includes video games, 90’s counter culture (especially bootleg/obscure media), fashion photography and video installations.
419 Inc. is a collective collaboration between Tanna and a multitude of emerging and mid-career artists, who’s various skills compliments Tanna’s own.
Saeideh Yazea
B. 1984. Tehran, Iran, Live and works in London, UK. MA Fine art, from, Chelsea College of Arts. (University of the arts, London). I document my immediate environment as a form of contemporary anthropology. As, a migrant, I observe and collect from a wide range of sources, people, places and situations, partly to fulfil my desire to root myself in the new society of, London. I began my artistic career through an act of political exile. I work with, installation, performance, photography, video and painting to investigate systems of knowledge, power and culture.
Jon Arbuckle is a myserious figure/possible art project courtesy of Ed Fornieles, who seems obsessed with Katy Perry. He also makes appearances as a cartoon character named ‘Jon Buck’, possibly inspired by the gigolo from the movie ‘Midnight Cowboy’
Lara Joy Evans
B. 1993 Los Angeles, California, Live and works in Berlin, Germany. BA Fine Art from Gerrit Rietveld Academie
Lara Joy Evans, born in 1993 in Los Angeles, is a Berlin based interdisciplinary artist with work ranging from Installation, sculpture, text, publications, video, to two-dimensional pieces. Various themes appear in multiple forms reflecting on contemporary interpretations of language, notions of the material and the mental, botanical rhizomes and the internet, commentary on contemporary social media culture, taboos, and stigmas as well as the underlying general culture, and it’s non-linear evolution from ancient primordial times to the rapid changes of the information age.
Miro Arva
Born in Bratislava (former Czechoslovakia in 1982), Miro Arva discovered his passion towards visual art in his late twenties. In 2008 he travelled to England to pursue his photography career. One of the highlights of Arva’s journey so far was photographing 90s supermodel Naomi Campbell in 2010. Miro Arva is a freelance photographer based in London. His passion lies in both commercial and artistic photography.
