Scott Campbell: They Say Miracles Are Past, OHWOW, London

Scott Campbell: They Say Miracles Are Past, OHWOW, London

Scott Campbell presents his new work They Say Miracles Are Past at OHWOW, London from October 4th through 13th. This exhibition reveals that Campbell’s appetite for patent imagery continues his repute, but it also signals a new direction.

With a series of 15 pieces, which confuse two-dimensional and three-dimensional distinction, Campbell suspends carvings of nearly photographic lunar landscapes, defaced with scat, in dense pours of resin. The result of this process manifests as wall hanging objects that accurately depict the moon’s natural phases, yet each one is marred with anonymous gestures and proclamatory scrawl. Upon closer inspection, playful and often poetic narratives appear and become open for interpretation. These hybrid relics are ominous and hypnotic, chaste and blemished, ethereal and solid. As with much of Campbell’s work, he achieves a tangible balance in the aesthetic spectrum through merging opposite ends.

Campbell studies the signs, symbols, and text commonly found in tattoo culture. His work investigates this familiar vernacular and points out the inherent irony existing within that imagery. Through the act of chronicling working-class iconography, Campbell offers a new narrative for viewers to consider recognizable images. The precise technique and mastery of his style is complemented by his concern with human experience. He pays tribute to individual stories, and as a result, he records a specific history, which in turn becomes a collective one.

Scott Campbell, 4th until 13th October, 25 Hanbury Street, London, E1 6QR. www.oh-wow.com

Credits:

1. Our Secret, 2012. Courtesy of the Artist and OHWOW.
2. Go home dad, you’re drunk, 2012. Courtesy of the Artist and OHWOW.
3. They say miracles are past, 2012. Courtesy of the Artist and OHWOW.
4. Shit show from the get go, 2012. Courtesy of the Artist and OHWOW.