THE COLLECTIVE SHADOW
The Collective Shadow
Kévin Bray’s first solo exhibition with Upstream Gallery, The Collective Shadow , showcases the latest work of the interdisciplinary artist. In this exhibition, Bray’s works and installations guide us through an exploration of a universal entity and a historic figure: the Monster. The concept of the Monster has been introduced to all of us, one way or another. Yet, only by looking at the etymology of the word monstrosity do we begin to understand the potentially complex roles that monsters play within society. Monster derives from the Latin, monstrare, meaning “to demonstrate”, and monere, “to warn.” Thus, in essence, monsters are demonstrative. They reveal, show and make evident —often uncomfortably— the cultural or psychological characteristics that we as a society find difficult to acknowledge. Bray’s work is distinguished through multi-media approaches, particularly the technique of projection/video mapping. In which a projector is used to cast light on arbitrarily structured surfaces in a tailored way, seamlessly layering the projection like a new skin to
interact mutually on top of our physical reality. Reverberating this methodology and play between obscurity and projection, with The Collective Shadow Bray expands on this interrelation of light and darkness as a metaphor to consider our larger collective challenges. Throughout the past decade we have had a resurgence of monsters. They seem to act as an important social tool, able to embody abstract contemporary and often collective fears, dangers and anxieties. These monsters in some cases exemplify Carl Jung’s collective shadow. In Jung’s analytical psychology, the collective shadow is defined as what has been hidden inside of ourselves collectively because it is repressed, denied or unintegrated. Within his practice, Bray adopts the climate crisis and fossil fuel energy consumption as examples of this expanding shadow. The complexity of relations and our dependency to production processes with high polluting emissions explain our inaction towards climate changes. Such a massive problem eludes us in our short-sightedness and doesn’t seem to fit our political and social agenda, which is drastically shaped by a global neoliberal way of seeing the world.
In the first room of The Collective Shadow , blinded by the symbolic spotlights of our spectacle-driven society, two characters converse unintelligibly. In the background, their shadows hectically grow and experiment within the limits of their elemental powers and tools. The ever-growing complexity of this world’s dynamics provokes unbounded natural reactions that are ever more primitive and elemental. And through these catastrophic acts, we come to see that our contemporary monsters are the ones we have already been introduced to during childhood—Water, Fire, Wind and Earth— the elements that create life, are today’s increasing dangers.
Kévin Bray
it is left (2022) (5761)
Steel pole, wooden board, carpet, 3D printed PLA, acrylic paint and projection mapped video
Kévin Bray it was right (2022) (5760)
Steel pole, wooden board, carpet, 3D printed PLA, acrylic paint and projection mapped video
Kévin Bray from left to right:
Aqua (2022)
Vento (2022)
Fueco (2022)
Terra(2022)
Wood, screws, plexiglass, oiled paper, led lights Each lightbox - 120 x 190 cm
In the second room of the exhibition the 4 light boxes on display these 4 elemental monsters. Shadows can only be exposed in the presence of light. As the light in the quadriptych turns off, the four monsters reveal elemental powers that are composed of all the paintings displayed them on the opposite wall. fundamental method within paintings, this technique, as of art that created novel ways storytelling by introducing a visual hypertext, has been inspired the work of Arcimboldo. An artist made portraits of Vienna’s monarchy with paintings composed of they possess and the discoveries they have made in the “new” (some of them being under theme of the four seasons), addition to Indian composite that seems to be representing interdependence, wholeness and unity.
exhibition depict Shadows presence quadriptych reveal the composed facing wall. As a Bray’s a form ways of a proto inspired by artist who monarchy of what discoveries
“new” world under the seasons), in composite art representing and
Kévin Bray
Morpher (2022) ((5628)
Video 11m04scds
In the second room, Bray’s video Morpher (2018 - ongoing), is also on display. Navigating through bright shape shifting landscapes, this video work acts as the spine and living archive of Bray’s artistic practice.
Like a living organism, Morpher is continuously evolving, and the many characters seen across his paintings become props in an extending reality where they can be activated differently. The paintings on the aforementioned opposite wall, are autonomous pieces as much as symbolic storyboards for the video Morpher . The paintings recurrently make an appearance within the video series, existing within the pre-production space as announcers of what may come, as much as props later within the video as reminders of these interconnected complementary processes.
The artist is renowned for showing the viewer precisely how the work is constructed, and what is essential to him is the story to tell as much as the way to tell it. By doing so, he invites us to reflect on the transformation of production processes and the alteration of their narratives, revealing their ability to force us to question our relation to materiality and reality.
Kévin Bray
It is climbing up to climb down on the borderline (2022) (5744)
Digital print on canvas 65 x 144 cm
Kévin Bray
It is on the cloud (2022) (5746)
Digital print on canvas
90 x 80 cm
Kévin Bray
Lobby label collection #2 (2022) (5753)
Digital print on canvas
100 x 90 cm
Kévin Bray
It is filtering its needs (2022) (5748)
Digital print on canvas
150 x 130 cm
It is running away from an unnatural disaster (2022) (5749) Digital print on canvas
75 x 85 cm
Kévin Bray
Kévin Bray
It is coming for you (2022) (5750)
Digital print on canvas
60 x 60 cm
It is producing clouds (2022) (5752) Digital print on canvas 90 x 120 cm
Kévin Bray
KÉVIN BRAY
Kévin Bray (b. 1989, Corbie, France) is a French interdisciplinary artist currently based in Amsterdam. Initially trained as a graphic designer with two MA degrees obtained in both France and the Netherlands, Bray soon after became an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (2018–2019). There he cultivated his practice as an independent visual artist within the contemporary art arena.
Kévin Bray’s solo exhibitions include The Transformation of Matter Creates Light , Trauma Bar und Kino, Berlin, 2022; Wills, Wheels, Wells , Future Gallery, Berlin, 2021; B reakdown After Before , Dordrecht Museum, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2021; Don’t forgive/get, them , Stigter Van Doesberg, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2020; and Morpher III , Foam Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2020. His work was also shown in group exhibitions, such as L’anima Navigue, Future, Ancien, Fugitif, Palais De Tokyo, Paris, France, 2019 and RijksOpen, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2018.
Lobby label collection #1 (2022) (5745)
Digital print on canvas
140 x 104 cm
Kévin Bray
It is helping the fight (2022) (5751) Digital print on canvas
55 x 50 cm
Kévin Bray
It is the weight of future hopes (2022) (5747) Digital print on canvas
130 x 90 cm
Kévin Bray
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