10 Aug 2012

Stranger in a Strange Land | David Callan


126 Gallery present:

Stranger in a Strange Land | David Callan

Exhibition: 11th August - 8th September 2012
Preview: Friday 10th August, 6pm


David Callan
Image credit: Brendan Goode
Stranger in a Strange Land

“Then suddenly, with grokking so blinding he trembled, he understood money. These pretty pictures and bright medallions were not “money”; they were symbols for an idea which spread through these people, all through their world.”

Excerpt from Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

In his debut solo show, David Callan presents a mixed media installation which draws on a failure to grasp the global economic crisis, the interpretation of history and the artist’s love of science fiction to create an imagined narrative of current events. 'Stranger in a Strange Land' takes its title from the 1961 science fiction novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein (who borrowed it from the Book of Exodus), the story of a Martian’s attempts to understand life on earth. In turn, the artist has created dystopian works inspired by our enigmatic alien landscape of ghost estates and abandoned building sites, modern day monoliths, and questions how will they be interpreted hundreds of years from now. The work takes aesthetic and allegorical cues from such films as the Alien franchise and 2001: A Space Odyssey, in particular their miniature special effects, as well as building sites, Newgrange and Joe McNamara’s Achillhenge.

David Callan is an artist based in Galway. He is a graduate of GMIT Cluain Mhuire and a former board member of 126. He has shown widely around Ireland as well as in the USA and Finland. He has yet to exhibit in Berlin.