New exhibition from SEAS

Socially Engaged Art Salon (SEAS) is to present The Force of Fantasy, a new online exhibition, from March 19 till April 16.

The Force of Fantasy is a group exhibition curated by Ricardo Reverón Blanco and includes Blast Theory, Cedar Lewisohn, Gil Mualem-Doron, Mitchell Moreno, Noraa James, Phoebe Boswell and Sam Moreno Alamein. More artists and writers will be featured in the Tough Cookie / SEAS zine that will be published later this month.

Taking Judith Butler’s essay, The Force of Fantasy: Feminism, Mapplethorpe, and Discursive Excess, as a starting point, this exhibition proposes that fantasy is a powerful tool to not only imagine alternative futures but to manifest them by looking beyond convention. The Force of Fantasy will enter the extraordinary as a means to open up dialogues about gender, race, class, and critique our pervasive social hierarchy.

Curator Ricardo says: “Fantasy is crucial for (re)thinking what could be. The Force of Fantasy invites you to imagine what possibilities might lie in the not so distant future; by tilting realism sideways or exploring imaginative worlds, the artworks selected aim to make you question our world’s infrastructure. What could be if we imagine alternative possibilities to the social order? Can myth become reality? If so, treat these works as portals to better understand our world, and in doing so, transport us to more equitable lands. 

“Each artist’s perspective is unique and selected by how they relate to the arguments made by Judith Butler in the essay that inspired this exhibition”

Mitchell Moreno took the first Covid-19 lockdown as an opportunity to consider: What might a visual language of mental disorder look like? Whereas Phoebe Boswell explores Shakespeare’s fictive plays to explore Othello’s racial themes in a historical and contemporary setting drawing parallels between immigration and blackness in the UK today.

The opening event for the exhibition, which can be viewed here, will be on Friday, March 19 at 5pm, and will include a talk from the curator who will take you on a journey of what to expect for the show. There will also be talks from the contributors, some of which will give a short presentation about their practice and offer the opportunity to ask any questions. Tickets are FREE and can be booked by clicking here.