exhibition

Paved with Good Intentions

Guillaume Paris

19.May.07 - 22.Jun.07
Wed - Sun, 12 - 6pm

Private View, 18.May.07, 7- 9pm

Paradise Row
17 Hereford Street
London E2 6EX
+44(0)207 6133311
info@paradiserow.com
www.paradiserow.com
Tube Liverpool Street, Bethnal Green, Spitalfields / Brick Lane

"Purity is the enemy of change, ambiguity and compromise"
Mary Douglas

Over the last fifteen years Guillaume Paris has evolved a diverse practice that focuses, from an anthropological standpoint, on the use and abuse of meaning and identity in contemporary culture. The work examines the powerful ideological forces that shape modern society, especially their more curious elements - such the persistence of quasi magical forms of thinking in the discourse of both consumer capitalism and Western politics that combine to form our 'new world order'.

At core, these interests lead Paris to explore notions of the ideal and the rhetoric of purity that underlie all these discourses: from politics to religion, via advertising and marketing. As part of that critique of purity Paris positively engages with ideas of change and adaptability, in conceptions of heterogeneity, transience and tolerance.

In keeping with these concerns Paris produces exhibitions that define a very particular kind of space. Structurally diverse, often combining works executed in different media that apparently address different subjects. Paris creates spaces that are opposed any form of essentialism and so do not lend itself to any form of closure. Instead they provoke critical engagement and, at times, a more emotional response to the vast flow of material and ideas that constitutes the world that shapes, and is shaped, by humanity.