Friends, Family, Neighbors
A solo show by David Gregory Wallace
Exhibition Dates: May 31st-June 30th, 2013
Opening Event: Friday May 31st, 8-10pm
Screening: TBA
Day time Gallery Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 1-4pm
Night Time Gallery hours: Sundays 8-10pm, June 16th and June 23rd
Please Note: The Shadow Puppet Machine can be seen in the window of the gallery every night of the week from 8pm-12am.
The Royal NoneSuch Gallery is proud to present Friends, Family, Neighbors, a solo exhibition by David Gregory Wallace. The works reflect on the dominant drone narratives propagated by mainstream media, politicians, and the military/security industrial complex for the post-9/11 War on Terror. An automated shadow puppet machine installed in the front window of the gallery, for which the exhibition is named, utilizes 160 color slide portraits taken of over 50 people from the artist’s daily life. Portraits of loved ones, roommates, co-workers and neighbors are projected on the window as a flock of shadow birds and the silhouette of a Predator drone move across their faces. For the video loop 'This is where we live', Wallace has constructed a classic A-frame house out of drone footage found on the internet. Most of the videos are of "successful" targeted strikes on supposed insurgents or terrorists--attacks which often also kill civilians. In contrast to the portraits of the artist’s friends, family and neighbors in the window installation, the people captured in the drone footage lack recognizable characteristics and remain anonymous. A short video, 'Predator', depicts a boy flying a model drone through private and public spaces around the East Bay. Predator reflects on our shared complicity in the use of drones as well as our simultaneous vulnerability in a world where they have become ubiquitous.
David Gregory Wallace is an Oakland-based visual artist who works in sculpture and video. He received his MFA in 2011 from the Department of Art Practice at the University of California, Berkeley. Wallace has shown his work at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Sonoma State Gallery, Berkeley Art Center, Martina Johnston Gallery, and Krowswork Gallery. In 2012 he had a solo exhibition at Right Window Gallery and curated the group exhibition State of Affairs at the Royal NoneSuch Gallery. Friends, Family, Neighbors is Wallace's first solo exhibition in the East Bay.
