SMART Project Space | 1e Constantijn Huygensstraat 20, Amsterdam
requests the pleasure of your company at the exhibition opening of:

THUG LIFE | September 8 - October 13
Artists: Darren Almond | Craig Bell | Mark Dean | Marco Cops | Malachi Farr=
ell |
Martin Healy | Richard Menken | Roy Villevoye
curated by Thomas Peutz

Opening Saturday September 7, 21.00 hrs.

Thug life is the acronym for The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone,=

once etched across the stomach of the exalted dead rapper Tupac Shakur. A=

sort of prince of paupers, Shakur is the conflicted metaphor of buoyant
hopefulness and the desperate hopelessness that marks the outer perimeters=

of the panorama of despair. Despite competing discourses he embraced and
exposed the tragedies of the ghetto to a global audience, with a
pronouncedly social and political bent. A generation of disenfranchised
youth have been shaped by problems of the inner city, of relocation and
growing up in poverty, simultaneously embracing destructiveness and
resistance.
In the effort to validate ones existence, the edifying and the terrifying=

pull in two different directions - one constructive and empowering, the
other hedonistic and nihilistic. The exhibition Thug life departs at this=

intersection, with works of art that dare to wrestle with the beautiful and=

uneasy questions of existence and human frailty.
Mark Dean sets the precedence for the exhibition presenting a mute and
chilling video work lasting 8 hours - the hours of sleep - in which paterna=
l
love and tenderness are acutely questioned and left vulnerable. Refuge is=

not to be found in the installation piece by Malachi Farrell, known for his=

didactic critique of social and political structures. A constructor of
stories, he employs the use of electronic and mechanical devices to forge=

'Fish Flag Mourant'. Electronic music resounds while dying mechanical fish=

flap on the floor amidst debris and acid. Farrell takes his audience on a=

journey to the edge of poisonous waters, where civilisation seeks to destro=
y
what it once thought to be beautiful. An agonising process of waiting and=

incarceration is transmitted live via satellite from an empty prison cell t=
o
the exhibition space in the work of Darren Almond. Martin Healy offers his=

audience a video installation 'Little Devils'. Healy has isolated fragments=

from 3 films in which the central character is played by a male child
possessed by evil powers. He has captured the moment in which each boy fixe=
s
the camera with a cold stare. In addition, the title references media
rhetoric often used when describing child offenders.
The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone is an eloquent reflection and=

artistic exploration of human survival and frailty and the vulnerability of=

love.


Sponsored by: Gemeente Amsterdam, Mondriaan Stichting, Beam Systems, Mentr=
um.

SMART Project Space | www.smartprojectspace.net
Exhibition Space & Cinema: 1e Const. Huygensstraat 20
Opening times: Tues-Sat from 12.00-22.00, Sun from 14.00-22.00 hrs.
Mail to: P.O.Box 15004, NL-1001 MA Amsterdam
Phone: +31 20 427.5951 / 427.5952
Fax.: +31 20 427.5953
mail: info@smartprojectspace.net

If this e-mail was forwarded to you by way of someone other then SMART Proj=
ect Space, and you would appreciate to receive further mailings announcing =
exhibitions at SMART Project Space, you can send mail to info@smartprojects=
pace.net with the following command in the body of your email message: "sub=
scribe e-mailing SPS"

If you would want to remove yourself from this mailing list, you can send m=
ail to info@smartprojectspace.net with the following command in the body of=
your email message: "unsubscribe e-mailing SPS"