GOLDFINGER: Faisal Abdu'Allah

31.Oct.07 - 04.Nov.07
Wed-Sun 11-5

Cafe Gallery
Centre of Southwark Park
London SE16 2UA
020 7237 1230
www.cafegalleryprojects.org
Tube Canada Water; Bus 1, 47, 188, 199, 299, 381, Canary Wharf / Docklands

Faisal Abdu’Allah’s major new installation, Goldfinger that continues the artist’s recurring interest in reconfiguring representations of masculinity, criminality and the nature of power. Beyond the surface façade of violence, Abdu’Allah utilises the interplay between materiality and alchemy to invoke the transformative.

Taking the tradition of portraiture as his departure, Abdu’Allah subverts conventional discourses of myth and iconography to illuminate the universal and humane. The transcendental qualities of precious metal and essentially - light are used to explore a correlation between liminal spaces and spirituality.

Goldfinger was developed via a four-year dialogue with legendary underworld figure and head of the ‘Firm,’ Joey Pyle [1935-2007]. Abdu’Allah’s investigation and negotiations into Pyle’s ‘criminal elite’ and the networks forged by unity, loyalty and the bonds of interlinking relationships evolves from the artist’s constant redefinition of collaborative, socially and politically engaged practice and the terms by which they operate.

The exhibition evokes the fragility of representation and tenuousness of existence itself.

Goldfinger has been curated by Indie Choudhury in collaboration with Cafe Gallery Projects London.