EMPIRES RISE AND FALL, YET THE WILD LIFE REMAINS. THE WORLD OF RAQIB SHAW IN ONE OF OPULENCE, AS HE MASTERFULLY CRAFTS ART HISTORY WITH LUSH PERSONAL MYTHOLOGIES TO CREATE ORNATELY GUILDED WORKS OF ART. NO ONE DANCES THE LINE BETWEEN DESTRUCTION & DECADENCE BETTER THAN SHAW. ARRIVING @#4.
“CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE RAQIB SHAW WORK?” “ITS $40,000.” THE WHITE CUBE ATTACHE RESPONDED INSTINCTIVELY. THIS WAS OPENING NIGHT AFTER ALL, GET THAT MONEY HONEY. THIS WAS IN 2010 FOR THE 4″ X 6″ WORK ON PAPER ABOVE, EXTRAPOLATE, THAT WITH THE SCALE AND DETAIL OF HIS SUCCESSIVE WORKS, AND YOU ONLY IMAGINE. LOOKING BACK THE EXPERIENCE WAS QUITE JARRING, IT WAS THE FIRST TIME SPEAKING TO AN ENGLISHMAN WHO WAS SO BRAZEN & STRAIGHT TO THE BOTTOM LINE, WELCOME TO BASEL.
IMAGES DO NOT CAPTURE THE SENSUOUS UNDERTONES PERMEATING FROM THE WORKS LIKE PHEROMONES, LURING YOU IN LONG BEFORE YOU REALIZE IT IS TOO LATE! CAPTURED BY THE WESTERNIZED AESTHETICS OF BLING! BLING! & EXCESSIVE DISPLAYS OF WEALTH. WALKING THE LINE BETWEEN VULGARITY & PURE HEDONISM UNASHAMED, HIS ANTHROPOMORPHIC CREATURES DANCE BETWEEN ART HISTORY MUSES & KAMA SUTRA YOGIS. THIS INTERPLAY BETWEEN MATERIALISM & MYSTICISM CREATES THIS DYNAMIC & ROMANTIC DANCE, A FLIRTATION WITH THE IDEALIZED FORMS FOUND IN PARADISE & HARBINGERS OF SOMETHING MUCH MORE OMINOUS.
924COLLECTIVE 