PERFORMANCE FETISH
SWG3 Gallery, Glasgow (SCO)

05.10.2013 – 28.10.2013

Curators:
It´s Our Playground
Camille Le Houezec (FR) and Jocelyn Villemont (FR)

Artists:
Bryan Dooley (GB), Sebastian Jefford (GB), Mathew Parkin (GB), Kay Walkowiak (AT)



This group exhibition examines a fascination for sport gear and the popularity of an athletic style in contempoarary art. Inspired by Rafael Nadal´s watch, the tape covering Christiano Ronaldo´s earrings and LeBron James´tattoo cover-up sleeve, Performance Fetish will try to fins out why a young generation of artists refer to and use ready-made items from the world of sport. Embracing the performance echancing technology and futuristic design of the materials available the artist in this show use the sports shop as hardware supplier and mistake the gallery for the gym.

Personal bests are teh aim here using bike grip tape and pull up bars as brackets, the artists in Performance Fetish have been stretching and pushing their materials to the limits, warming up ideas and pacing themselves to “work out” their practices. [...]
Kay Walkowiak´s new prints depict one of his structural like sculptures in a series paying tribute to both gymniastics apparatus and the display rack.


Text: It´s Our Playground, Glasgow 2013 
Photos: SWG3 Gallery