Coconut at Galerie Suvi Lehtinen

When I came back to Berlin from my well deserved (well if you ask my boss, he’d digress) holidays I instantly got sick. I got sick of the darkness, the sky that seems to be right above me and not miles high and the darkness that settles over the city as early as 15:30 Bulgaria and Sofia in particularly can’t maybe offer a half of what Berlin has, but great climate and fantastic sunny bright weather are a constantly on the menu. James Gregory Atkinson, an artist previously based in Berlin and now studying Fine Arts in Frankfurt – brings that feeling of being trapped in the form of an art installation in Galerie Suvi Lehtinen.

In their second collaboration “Coconut” Are You Meaning Company and James explore the phenomenon of escapism. Fleeing from reality- the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined- is a shared longing. Bound to society’s commitments the physical escape is most often impossible and it remains the mind only that has to wander in the pursuit of happiness.

A collective dream of escape can be found in the remote tropical island. A paradise finding it’s symbol in a palm tree. Symbolically charged throughout the centuries it has nowadays become the cliché image for escape from reality, civilization even. Forms of withdrawal through dreams and desires can lead to alien means of escape which become physical and therefore part of reality. They are human attempts of creating paradise.
Ayumi and James’s exploration leads them to such a tropical fantasy. It is a trip that results in a confrontation of expectation and truth.

Find your own oasis and truth tonight at Suvi Lehtinen gallery.

Opening January 14 2012: 19-22

Show: January 16 – February 4, 2012