Teatime Dystopia 

Ben Walker

11th of January - 8th of February

Soho Revue is pleased to present Ben Walker’s solo exhibition, ‘Teatime Dystopia’ (15th January - 8th February).

A red cloaked rider gallops across a green hued landscape on a horse, young children stand side by side against a red sky, a little hippo stands by a lake, and a lion stalks into the red and blue undergrowth; and so the scene is set. Ben Walker has created an exhibition that reads akin to a physical story book of cartoon-like distant childhood memories and imaginings

Through a mixture of memories, vaguely recalled children's films and long since cancelled television programmes as the subject matter, the exhibition seeks out the feeling of longing to recall something perhaps forgotten or mis-remembered. Walker takes us through these memories as if reaching back in his mind’s eye and pulling fragments of narrative to the fore of his misty textural paintings.

Leaning on elements of retrofuturism, a movement in the creative arts which shows the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era that often didn’t come true, Walker explores the fragility of these images rooted in childhood memories. There is something slightly ominous that creeps onto the canvas, made clearer by use of colour and shadowing, indicating that this picture of childhood wonder is increasingly threatened and on the verge of being tainted by the intruding reality of adulthood.

The uncanny nostalgic images Walker creates becomes a tonic for the image overwhelm we increasingly navigate in today’s world. There is also an exploration into the role of the practice and material, specifically how painting, can play in this pixelated image saturated environment. The material becomes conceptual - the heavy coarse linen allows Walker to build up multiple layers of paint while maintaining the rough surface, increasingly lending a feeling of historical weight with each layer. The role of colour too, lends a comment on an image saturated environment. Colours in Ben’s work can be seen as a blend of believable and unbelievable as he sources from both nature and the imagination. The mixture of this perhaps best seen in ‘Snowy Red’ with it’s green story book hills, true in colour and imagined in form, nestled under a glowing pink sky.

Whether real or mis-remembered, filled with innocent childhood wonder or tainted by the reality of adulthood, Walker’s evocation of the past swirls across the canvas, gently rocking the viewers into a nostalgic haze, ready to reflect on our own mis-rememberings.