Heads of state

Solo exhibition.

Leigh Clarke creates singular, provocative statements using mass manufactured, multiple objects. His main source of recent research is in latex, political masks that he acquires through the Internet, ranging from Ayatollah Khomeini, Fidel Castro, Nicolas Sarcozy and Hilary Clinton. Through a process of reprographic manipulation, the images generated through squashing, folding and scanning the masks reveal shadowy, abstracted portraits that oppose the original function of the object. The artist then offers a more confrontational experience to the viewer by casting his discoveries 3-dimensionally at human scale. By stripping the mask of it's intended irony and satire, Clarke reveals hidden truths about how we read images of political figureheads through the media. His understanding of comedy through his own performance work enables him to expose the serious, often dark, creative foundations needed to make humour.