SAMUEL HERBERT
The Cremation of Care
Press View Friday 30 May 2008 4-6pm
Private View Friday 30 May 2008 7-9pm
SHOW DATES: 31 MAY 18 JUNE 2008 every Saturday and Sunday 12-4pm
PRESS RELEASE
"The Bohemian club! Did you say Bohemian club? That's where all those rich Republicans go up and stand naked against redwood trees right?"
Bill Clinton responding to a Heckler, October 26, 2007
Opening at the Gone Tomorrow Gallery on Saturday 31 May is a new exhibition of monochromatic-based paintings by artist Samuel Herbert.
Herbert is fascinated with the Bohemian Club, which is hidden amongst 2,700 acres of Californian Redwood forest in Bohemian Grove. Since 1899 its members hold a camp there for three weeks each July. Formed in 1872, ostensibly as an arts club, at San Francisco, the Bohemian club’s secretive and exclusive all-male membership quickly expanded to include some of the most prominent and powerful men in America. It counts amongst its membership several former US Presidents, cabinet officials, CEO’s of large corporations, as well as high ranking officials from major military contractors, oil companies, banks and the media.
The centrepiece of the three-week camp is the so-called ‘Cremation of Care’ performance, which Herbert has used as the inspiration for this series of work. Although the club’s motto of ‘Weaving spiders come not here’ officially discourages its membership from networking, in reality, meetings are held and deals made. It is acknowledged that in 1942 the camp hosted a planning meeting for the Manhattan Project that led to the creation of the first atomic bomb.
The secrecy of these rituals and the elitist nature of the club’s membership have led to a variety of conspiracy theories about what occurs amongst the secluded trees of Bohemian Grove. Herbert takes this gap between fact and fantasy as the starting point for his paintings.
By re-imagining a photographic archive of early Bohemian Club meetings, Herbert mixes photographic fact with conspiratorial fantasy to create a set of sinister and disquieting images. These lushly painted canvasses, which are all set against the backdrop of a foreboding forest, become the stage for a surreal collection of psychodramas as the club members, some in bestial fancy dress, enact a variety of strange rituals.
The question as to whether these are depictions of harmless high-jinx between the rich and powerful or a sinister neo-conservative conspiracy is left deliberately open. As with his previous work dealing with colonialism, these darkly beautiful paintings seek to neither prove nor disprove a theory but rather question the assumptions associated with power and subversion.
-ENDS-
For hi-res images and interviews, please contact Maxine Shannon on 07986 350 943
Notes to editors
Samuel Herbert lives in London and this is his second solo show at the Gone Tomorrow Gallery. He graduated from Goldsmiths MA in 2004 and has exhibited widely around Europe and the UK since then. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at ZINGERpresents Amsterdam and Vamiali’s Gallery, Athens, and numerous Group shows. His work is held in several notable collections in including the Saatchi Collection, London and the various private collections across Europe, Asia and the USA.