Conor Harrington - Weekend Warriors

78 pages
Text(s) by Martine Laureau
28 x 22.5 cm
Language: English
Hardback, dust jacket
Publisher: Lazarides Gallery
Edition of 650 copies
2008

A copy in almost perfect condition. Some scarce pencil notes on the head page. 

Weekend Warriors is the catalog of the exhibition held by Lazarides Gallery in London between January 25 and February 23, 2008 showcasing works by Conor Harrington, including paintings made from oil and aerosol paint, alongside a series of new charcoal drawings.

Central to his oil canvasses is the male figure, representing the masculinity that is a commonplace of urban culture. Weekend Warriors explores the world of historic re-enactment as illustrated above, where men dress up at the weekends as warriors, generals and emperors to live out their escapist-fantasies as heroes and supermen.

The Napoleonic era was a time of great upheaval when men went into battle in uniforms dripping with gold as symbols of power and wealth, almost turning the battlefield into a 19th century catwalk. Similarly, in today’s bling culture, the urban male has the same preoccupation with gold as a symbol of their power, wealth and glory.

However, Harrington does not aim to remake historic paintings – his work focuses on the 21st century western world, and masculinity and artifice are the driving forces in his work. Rather than emphasizing wealth and valour, he looks to highlight the pretense and allusion tot hese qualities within contemporary society.