LONDON.- Benedict Drew (b.1977) works across video, sculpture and music, creating large-scale multimedia installations which comment on the effects of socio-political and environmental issues.
The Trickle-Down Syndrome is a new work comprising five connected yet distinct spaces which draw on wide-ranging references, from Hollywood director Busby Berkley’s 1930s stage-sets to the Surrealist landscapes of Max Ernst, continuing the artist’s exploration into materiality, where the physical and digital meet.
Through a dizzying array of vividly coloured screens, experimental compositions, large-scale banners, a tiered stage and an accompanying audio narrative, these works come together to take visitors on an emotional and sensory journey through the exhibition.
The title refers to a 1980s economic term used to describe the belief that benefits for the wealthy will eventually trickle down to the rest of society. Drew imagines its effects by using hand-drawn motifs, sculptures and kaleidoscopic projections.
Benedict Drew says: “The work contains a sense of the handmade, idiosyncratic, provisional and fantastical. I am interested in the feeling of submersion in social and environmental despair, being overwhelmed by images, confused by the shifting status of objects, disoriented by layers of history, trying to generate a state of being where you can escape, and seeing escape as a potent form of resistance, ecstatic protest.”
Drew studied at the Slade School of Art, London and also composes and performs music. For Art Night 2017 on 1 July, Drew turns his installation into a musical score, collaborating with experimental musicians on a live, durational and climactic improvisation on the stage which forms part of the installation.
Benedict Drew (b. 1977, Australia) lives and works in Whitstable and Margate, UK. He holds a BA in Fine Arts from Middlesex University and a MFA from Slade School of Fine Art. He recently had solo-exhibitions at Centre for Contemporary Art (Derry, 2016); Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool, 2016) and Art on the Underground (London, 2015) and has participated in numerous group exhibitions, among others the British Art Show 8 (Leeds, Edinburgh, Norwich and Southampton, 2015-2016); Institute of Contemporary Arts (London, 2015), Jerwood Space (London, 2015); Baltic 39 (Newcastle, 2014); Adelaide International 2014 (Adelaide, 2014), and Museum of Arts and Design (New York, 2013). He is represented by Matt’s Gallery (London).
