Friends and Strangers

Overview

By definition, a relationship can only exist through the comparison, or connection between two things or people. Friends & Strangers, the latest exhibition to grace the Basement's walls, looks at what happens when art works are taken out of context and forced together, like the arbitrary composition of an image blog.

By participating in the online world of social networks and blogging platforms,we have all become collectors and curators of digital content, willingly or not. How and why do we choose what to share, to pin, to post, or to re-post?

Friends & Strangers features pieces from The Wallace Arts Trust collection and local street artists Cairo Bean, Deus, Gasp, Haunt One and Wert159, bringing together disparate or seemingly contradictory themes and styles. Curators Diva Blair and Cecelia Min used the Trust's online archive to trawl through over 6,000 artworks collected since the mid 1960's, selecting works in the same highly subjective manner in which we elect online content worthy of sharing. Amalgamated in a new context, the relationship between these artworks and their 'street' counterparts opens up a discussion on relevancy, audience and image consumption.

Image credit: WERT159