Duo in tweed return to haunt streets of London; Gilbert & George opened their new show London Pictures last Thursday at White Cube Bermondsey (8 March), comprising 292 works based on 3712 newsagent poster slogans. Introducing the exhibition, George Passmore admitted to six years of tactically distracting newspaper vendors, while his accomplice Gilbert Proesch swiped the posters.
The vast gridded works contain slogans such as ‘Dalston Death Plunge Mystery’, ‘Newborn Baby’s Body Dumped’ and ‘Bankers S+M Death Riddle’, highlighting the tension between dramatised tabloid rhetoric and the grim reality of the crimes committed. Rendering London in a Dickensian light, the pair appear ghostlike as they wander through murky and misty scenes of backstreet London.
The tweed-clad pair describe the series as a ‘faithful portrait of London’, hoping that visitors will reassess the way in which they conduct their lives. Despite this, they perceive their home town as the most exciting place on earth, suggesting that Liverpool Street station is the best sample of mankind on earth. Starting out in Hong Kong to inaugurate the newest White Cube gallery, this exhibition presents the largest body of work ever produced by a collaborative duo, spanning across three London spaces as part of a thirteen-gallery world tour.
For more information about London Pictures and to preview the works exhibited click here, and don’t forget to check out other exhibitions in London.
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