LAMB Arts is pleased to present Long and Deep French Kiss, a site-specific solo show by assume vivid astro focus (avaf). The installation marks the final show at the gallery’s White Horse Street location before the building is demolished. An homage to Shepherd Market’s long standing history as the ‘red light district’ of Mayfair, and a critique on the rapidly shifting terrain of commercial real estate development in the area, the installation is a playful and interactive journey through 'eroticism under construction’.
The show invites viewers to meander, climb and comb their way through a series of confined maze-like tarp passages - a material most commonly found on construction sites. The tactile and shady nature of the darkened space transforms it into a sultry deconstructed ‘playhouse’, provoking uneasiness and disorientation, as well as amplifying the collective and inclusive experience of being inside an all encompassing three-dimensional artwork.
Shepherd Market housed the area’s upper class brothels for over a hundred years, from the late 1800s until the 1980s, shifting at night from its bustling daytime market and surrounding Mayfair business hub. From a hairdresser’s to a thai massage parlour, the gallery’s architecture is most characteristic of the area’s intimate, authentic and village-like environment. The gallery’s close quarters and impending demolition sits at the core of avaf’s intervention (the latter being a common premise in their projects), giving it an ephemeral urgency - and a transient physical presence. The alluring and inviting show title is juxtaposed by avaf’s doorfront statement ‘ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK’ - boding to the dangers of entering a construction site as well as the twisted uncanniness of a bordello.
assume vivid astro focus is an artist collective formed in New York in 2001 compromising most prominently of Christophe Hamaide-Pierson (Paris, France, b.1973) and Eli Subrack (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, b.1968). The multi-disciplinary collective are known for questioning classical notions of authorship as well as artists identity in contemporary society and the art world. Known for their vastly diverse practice and highly collaborative nature, avaf uses each project space’s architecture as the inception point to creating their ephemeral immersive environments.
