Rob Birch
It will be Beauty that Saves the World
20 Feb – 3 Mar 2019
Artist’s talk Saturday 23 Feb 2019 2pm at the gallery.
Rob Birch’s work challenges accepted notions of identity and its role and authenticity in contemporary society. It addresses the relationship between the personal and the political.
‘We are no longer able to call upon the traditional forms and structures generated from within society to understand who we are. We have been reduced to disposable actors within a wider narrative which we do not have access to. The truth is, it is not who we are that is important, but how we are what we are that matters’. Rob Birch
Rob Birch works with digital collage. The artist explains that his images are made in the knowledge that truth is reliant upon context, experience and fearlessness. His work expresses his understanding that ‘Art’ is not made, but found. It is found within the infinite number of images that bombard our visual senses. Through the appropriation of this imagery and its use in collage, the artist articulates a deep distrust regarding the structures of the authority of the ‘image’ and the authenticity of not only the form and nature of the image but more importantly the motives and agendas they represent.
‘We live in complex and complicated times. For many people, these times seem fearful and full of uncertainty. Times are hard. Now is not the time to lose courage’. Rob Birch
Rob Birch lives and works in Folkestone. He has an MA in ‘Drawing As Process’ from Kingston University.
His work is held at C&C Gallery, London and in private collections.
