In the middle of a large monolithic shape, a white light beckons. A gallery allows for the emergence of certain objects and phrases; itself becoming an object within the cultural framework it sits. The gallery in-turn begets certain phrases that legitimize and perpetuate it. Bishop and Reis replicate a gallery inside a gallery so that the gallery and the viewer become the objects of display.

 

Gallery x2 looks to unseat the viewer from their stable foundations; architecturally, psychologically and culturally, arguing that the regime of signs that support notions of who-we-are can be displaced by destabilising the spaces we have come to place so much faith in, including the art gallery. The work at Seventh is the second in a series that replicates actual gallery spaces. They ask questions about the legitimacy of the gallery and the objects exhibited in it. The final major work in the series will be exhibited at Geelong Gallery in late 2012. CB