Gallery Review: Nastio Moquito, Carlos Noronha Feio and Richard Perry’s “Accumulation, Displacement, Deletion, Rearrangement and Insistence” at narrative gallery

Nastio Moquito, Carlos Noronha Fei and Richard Perry have created a variety of mixed media works that cover fine art, photography, sculpture and video. These artists use a sense of irony to criticize the idea of systems and governing bodies, especially in Mosquito’s “3 Continents” (2010). In this piece Mosquito uses poetry to dictate the idea of how politicians can manipulate ideas that are not as useful, into sounding like they are. In his poetry, Mosquito addresses the issues of faults in the system such as corruption and how he “bought it” through his election.

In all honesty there weren’t very many other works that were as interesting and significant to me. “3 Continents” grabbed my attention especially for the fact that it was the only video piece. However what I did find interesting is how pillows of Barack Obama surrounded it, of which were created by Richard Perry. It felt as though this arrangement were commenting on how the United State of America is being governed. The purpose of this video piece’s content is to criticize the way in which our current system of governing works, so that we may improve on its flaws instead of blindly believing it to be okay. The fact that Mosquito also created video pieces for “Europe” shows that Europeans are not free of this corruption. The fact that Mosquito couldn’t even verbally address “Africa” shows the apparently obvious nature of the governing corruption.

The audience experiences the space by entering into a room with a projection of “3 Continents” playing. Ironically there are two pillows by Richard Perry but no sitting space. This leaves the viewer feeling impatient, which might reflect on the general opinion of most politicians. After this space the second room is covered by a bead door by Richard Perry, and into a room of mixed media works. In this second room the audience will experience more large scale pillows with Obama’s face, along with modified photography by Carlos Noronha Feio. This format does not really break the conventions of traditional form, except for the video piece that is repeatedly played to mask the silence of the space.

What I might take from the content of this exhibition is their ability to approach politicians without getting sued or targeted. This could be because Obama is a major icon so it would be impossible for him to recognize those who criticize him. As opposed to my Imelda Marcos piece, not enough people know of her tyranny or seem to remember who she is outside of the international community. What I find interesting is how Mosquito never addressed Asia at all. Perhaps this is something I could explore in my own works. As for the formal aspects of the work I find it interesting how Mosquito could make his viewers feel so irritated by not providing them a place to sit. Perhaps I could consider this when presenting any of my video pieces.