Watch the preview video of our January-March exhibition YouTube / Download for your iPhone or WMV 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jamie Paul’s ‘NEON JUNGLE’ – A vision of empty fantasies and manufactured dreams.

Neon Jungle is the third solo exhibition to be based in Singapore by British artist Jamie Paul to be held at the tcc “The Gallery” 51 Circular Road from January 12^th 2010. 

Heavily influenced by popular culture and its obsession with beauty and celebrity, Jamie stylishly combines his vision of a fantastical and hyper-real world, where individuals demand instant gratification, people and neon signs collide, colours bleed and glossy photo-shopped images are idolised.

In his latest works, Jamie explores issues of self-identity, focusing directly on individuals. The subjects within each painting are all generically ‘beautiful, a myth or vision of apparent perfection, mimicking the idols and pin ups seen in magazines and on television. Through the familiar poses that the figures strike and the absence of any physical scene or environment in which they are placed, Jamie is stripping away any context or predefined meaning.

Society’s narcissistic self obsessions have become the inspiration behind the new work created for this exhibition. According to Jamie, ‘’People are obsessed with themselves in the developed world today, our perception of ourselves or others perceptions of us are no longer dictated by where we are from or by our background, but more on what clothes we wear, how expensive they are, the music we listen to and where we socialise”.

The idea of incorporating the glossy and pristine nature of magazine and advertising imagery in an empty context inspired the artist. He says, ‘’On first impression, the scale of the figures and their innate beauty suggest that one should admire and aspire to be like them, however, on closer inspection, each figure sits in isolation only comforted by images of themselves, thoughts of self reflection or depictions of varying negative emotions. These subtleties relate to the darker, underlying side of contemporary society, fame & celebrity and the narcissistic tendencies contemporary society seemingly encourages’’.

As for the title ‘Neon Jungle’, the word ‘neon’ conveys the impression of ‘fake’ or ‘manufactured’ in this context, the realization that the images that individuals are exposed to on a daily basis are increasingly adapted and manipulated in order to fulfill daily fantasies. ‘Jungle’ conveys a ‘wild’ or ‘uncontrolled’ darker meaning, suggesting that when scratching beneath the surface of this fake, manufactured world, all may not be as perfect as it seems.

Having had a handful of solo shows and multiple group shows in both the UK and Australia, this will be Jamie’s third solo show held in Singapore, showing work made and inspired by his time here.