DANTE'S INFERNO

Sandow Birk Preview and book signing: Friday 30th November 7:30pm Exhibition Saturday 1st December - Friday 21st December Mon - Sat 12 - 6pm Screening of Dante's Inferno Dir: Sean Meredith 77 min USA (2007) Saturday 1st December 7:30pm Friday 14th December 7:30pm £7/£5 members & concessions In conjunction with the screening of the feature film adaptation of Dante's Inferno The Chamber of Pop Culture is proud to present an exhibition of original lithographs by Sandow Birk that illustrate the Cantos from his book of the same title. Sandow Birk's powerful imagery explores and chronicles America's political history and the concrete reality that has been constructed from the diverse policies that have surged throughout its short and unsettled history. Birk paints realistically, drawing stylistically from the historical traditions of American and European landscape painters. Using classical and familiar compositions of religious and pseudo-historical paintings, Birk replaces the historical with the contemporary, divorcing these scenes from the impenetrable "glory of the past" straight into the chaotic explosion of the present. In turn these scenes become complex and vital but also slightly humorous now that they have been distanced from the momentousness of the canon. Perhaps this sense of the familiar and popular was also intended to be present within the paintings that Birk appropriates but all sense of materiality and relevance has been swallowed and digested into the rigid stomach of history. Dante's Inferno is a contemporary reworking of the classic tale, bringing it back to modern life. Shot on HD and Directed by Sean Meredith using Victorian toy-theater techniques all the sets and characters have been exquisitely hand painted by Birk. Working with writer Marcus Sander, Dante's original text has also been adapted into present-day urban vernacular. Set amidst the vast urban entropy of present-day Los Angeles, Dante's Hell is brought to magical and original life in a darkly comedic travelogue of the underworld - set against an all too familiar urban backdrop of used car lots, gated communities, strip malls, logos and the U.S. Capitol. And populated with a contemporary cast of reprobates, including famous - and infamous - politicians, presidents, popes, pimps, and the Prince of Darkness himself. Unmissable!!!