New William Blanchard show has wit and weirdness in equal measure

Date
19 July 2012

Every morning on my way to work I pass some graffiti that reads “The King’s Munch…Let’s Punch Cops,” which I find almost transcendental in its nonsense. The point is making a point can be harder than it sounds, and the line between being genuinely thought-provoking and A-level Art cringe (“Kurt Cobain will f**k the bankers”) can be a fine one.

So it’s refreshing to see that for his new London show, William Blanchard has once again produced a glut of work on the right side of that divide. Combining his obsessive hoarding instinct, rock and roll sensibility and socio-cultural concerns he has produced: “a diverse range of flotsam from the ebb tide of the modern world through which (he) mirrors the unbridled consumption of our times and the emotional and political nature of our response to this society of spectacle and waste.”

There’s super-creepy Victorian carnival references, hacked military targets and twisted takes on voodoo shrines with a consistent seam of proper point-making.

This is William Blanchard is at The Strand Gallery from July 25 to August 4.

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William Blanchard: Unfair 1

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William Blanchard: I just don’t care anymore

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William Blanchard: Zippos Circus

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William Blanchard: Pop Art Soup

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William Blanchard: We are all the same underneath the skin

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William Blanchard: I love you with all my heart

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About the Author

Rob Alderson

Rob joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in July 2011 before becoming Editor-in-Chief and working across all editorial projects including itsnicethat.com, Printed Pages, Here and Nicer Tuesdays. Rob left It’s Nice That in June 2015.

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