I am the Wrath of God

When we reach the sea, we'll build a bigger ship...and sail north to take Trinidad from the Spanish crown. Then we'll sail on and take Mexico away from Cortes. What great treachery that will be! Then we shall control all of new Spain... and will produce history as others produce plays. I, the Wrath of God... will marry my own daughter... and with her i'll found the purest dynasty... the earth has ever seen. Together we shall rule the whole of this continent. We'll endure. I am the Wrath of God. who else is with me? (AGUIRRE, WRATH OF GOD)

Werner Herzog's film AGUIRRE, WRATH OF GOD acts as the reference point for the start of a curatorial project that is to become a work of art in its own right. I will be screening the final scene from this film alongside a similar sequence from Apocalypse Now, where Conquistadors are attacked by unseen natives whilst travelling along a jungle river. The similarity in these films finds roots in the common influence of HEART OF DARKNESS by Conrad, which inturn weaves its way into the fabric of the project. The themes central to these works, exploration of the unknown/savage/wilderness, survival within and a critique of subsequent methods of control and supremacy, mirror my own critique of art production and curatorial practice.

The retelling of stories; Antonioni, Conrad, Gericault, Spyri, Herzog and Coppola becomes the curatorial structure and has led me to include three works, by four Internatially recognised artists, who have been the most highly influencial upon my own practice.They are my Kurtz and I must retell their stories. I have hunted them down and have looked into the heart of their work for something that I can claim for myself.

On my journey I came across HEIDI, Mike Kelley's and Paul McCarthy's video. Softcore, More Music for the Love Scene, Zabriskie Point, Rodney Graham's video loop of the love scene from Antonioni's film,with a live recording of himself playing the tracks that he composed for the scene while he watches the loop.Finally I looked into the face of death and found a Lithograph from the portfolio THE RAFT OF THE MEDUSA by Martin Kippenberger, in which he replaces the dying sailors with his own self portraits.

All these pieces are either reworkings of work by other artists or have their conception in classic tales. The referential nature of much of the work prompted me towards mimicking the education rooms that are often found within most art institutions and museums and this will provide a context into which individual works can fit and intertwine.The four video pieces will be shown on a large central table along with the written material and other publications related to the project. As well as being an an exhibitional device, the tables will also act as a sculpture of a raft, overlooked by Kippenberger's reworked lithograph of the raft of the medusa

The exhibition is designed to work on the level of a curated exhibition, where individual works have their own autonomy within the curatorial project and as a curatorial work, where individual works make up one work. It is exploring this ambiguity that interests me as an artist and influences the curatorial experiments that I carry out at MOT.

Like Marlow I seek Kurtz, Like Aguirre I search for Eldorado and its mythical riches. I am an artist that is a curator that is a director that is MOT. I am the Wrath of God. Who else is with me?

I am the Wrath of God
Rodney Graham, Chris Hammond, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Paul McCarthy