Dear Sincere Friend

Andrew Christie

Opening 09.01.19 6-8pm
Artist Talks 31.01.19 6-7pm

UThe Parthenon Marbles have been held in the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum since 1816. While Greece was under Ottoman occupation, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and ‘sincere friend’ of Ottoman rulers, originally removed portions of the Parthenon frieze, metopes and other significant artefacts from the Athenian Acropolis as English ambassador. The moral and legal justifications for such actions have been the subject of ongoing controversy. And though there is growing support for the return of the marbles to their original home in Athens even among the English population, the actualisation of this vision seems as distant as it has ever been.

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Christie’s latest work began after being removed from the British Museum for attempting to take unapproved 3D scans of its main attraction, the Parthenon Marbles. These scans have since been manipulated and reproduced using 3D printing and appropriated as a form of cultural reclamation. This practice has been further developed for Firstdraft by engaging more deeply with alternative histories, employing virtual reality to re-envision the interior of the British Museum’s Duveen Gallery with assistance from the University of Southern California.

Christie has also sourced and recast ancient Greek coinage to replicate cheap souvenirs from the British Museum Gift Shop. This irreversible alteration to ancient artefacts speaks to the artists far-reaching interrogations of desire and hegemonic power. The works of Dear Sincere Friend tread the thin line between resignation and humour, worn down by the daunting possibility that the present state of bureaucratic and cultural deadlock surrounding the Parthenon Marbles conflict is unalterable, while continuing to offer renewed hopes and critical perspectives.

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