GALLERY 3
SHANGHAI COMMUNIQUE
MICHAEL CIAVARELLA
“Shanghai Communiqué” refers to a diplomatic document between China and the US from the 1970s. The text contains a provision described as ‘constructive ambiguity’, in which the US presented two opposing ideas in a single statement. The notions of contradiction and ambiguity are central to Ciavarella’s work. An affluent couple sitting side by side laughing, a man riding a pig backwards, a man pouring beer on himself, Bart Cummings, a woman painting a nude while she herself is without dress, the Silver Bodgie, a bon vivant eating sushi off a naked body, Jana Wendt… Although these paintings exist autonomously, they are also to be read in relation to each other, creating a disjointed, non-linear narrative. This is an exhibition of paintings that continue the artist’s interest in how we collectively or culturally read images, how they generate or negate meanings, and how they distort and manipulate reality.
