During the first year of what has become the Syrian Civil War, artist Grayson Richards collected nearly 500 articles, videos, and sound clips. The materials have since constituted an investigation in which the artist wades through its pages in futile search of human connection or holistic understanding. Restricted to image and text, this search inevitably becomes stuck in a loop of self-reproducing abstractions chasing an ever-elusive realisation.

By conducting this search within the confines of linear Western thought, Richards works to lay bare the negation of the subject by an ideologically bankrupt humanism.

Over the course of the festival the space will collect traces of the artist’s efforts, paper compounding paper in a monument to the shortcomings of media.

During the performance the public is invited to join the artist in conversation or explore the archive.

Presented by the Stride Art Gallery Association.

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