Jason & Becky – Poking the Bear | 7th September 2013

Having recently exhibited in the SMU Fine Art Degree Show and Elysium’s successful opening show, What Are They Building Down There?, Jason & Becky continue their collaborative practice with a six-week residency at the new Elysium Gallery & Studios on College Street, Swansea.

As an integral part of their residency, Jason & Becky will invite a number of guests to a series of one-night performances at the Elysium Gallery. These events will form the core of a new body of work, to be exhibited at the end of the residency on Saturday 7th September.

Jason & Becky’s collaborative practice investigates the socio-economic and socio-political condition, addressing questions regarding our current human and social state. Through interventions and socially engaging experiments, they challenge perceptions and engage participants, blurring boundaries and pushing limits through interaction. Their work often results in revealing insights into human behaviour; investigating the judgements, beliefs and understanding of others.
Viewers and participants are challenged to rethink their relationships to one another and their surroundings, confronting altered situations and simulated environments designed to create the uncertainty of internal dispute.

Poking the Bear is the culmination of a series of social experiments examining the human interaction of like-minded individuals, confronting issues of unspoken order and hierarchy within their own group.

This resulting exhibition of work is a visual representation of a noble endeavor to uphold moral values of empathy and altruism within the forced structure of a hierarchical competition.

‘Fear is the mother of morality’ – Friedrich Nietzsche