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Destroy All Monsters exhibition

Illustration

Posted by Gavin Lucas, 28 October 2009, 11:30    Permalink    Comments (5)

Destroy All Monsters is the name of Juju's Delivery's (aka Barcelona-based German illustrator Julia Schonlau) solo show currently running at Rojo's exhibition space in Barcelona. Schonlau cites films Ivan's Childhood and The Village of The Damned, artists Henry Darger and Marcel Dzama and books Where The Wild Things Are and Lord of The Flies as influences for the work in the show - which features uniformed children camping in the woods, seemingly stalked by a menagerie of monsters. But, with their red ray-emitting eyes, it's not the children who you feel worried for... 

"We create monsters to materialise our nebulous feeling of angst," says Schonlau in explanation of the show. "And to control our fear we chasten our negative emotions and fight the monsters. But it is a fight which cannot be won - because as long as you fight something then you acknowledge its very existence.

"In early horror films the monsters are menacing but tragic at heart," she continues. "They are outsiders, outcasts, loners... feared and hunted by the human race. At the same time they are destructive and full of vengeance. Like juvenile delinquents they are at war with themselves and the rest of the world, causing chaos in their wake. In contrast the children here in uniform are model citizens, obedient and well adjusted. They believe in the concept of right and wrong - something which they have been taught. But their childish eagerness to please and lack of knowledge has been misguided. They have been raised as an army to kill the trauma that possesses their society... to slay the world's monsters unquestioningly."

Here is a selection of images of the exhibition space and of some of the works in the show:

Destroy All Monsters by Juju's Delivery runs until November 3 at Rojo Artspace, Carrer Girona 61, Local 02, Eixample. 08009 Barcelona, Spain. Tel. +34 934 673 598

More info at rojo-barcelona.com

jujus-delivery.com

 

5 Comments

Really nice work.. I wish I would be part of that exhibition...!
Aftab
2009-10-28 15:41:35


Is this serious? I think this exhibition is ridiculous. It shows child like drawings - an exhibiiton I would expect to find on the wall of the local Primary school and just uses clever language in an attempt to give it some meaning. Unbelievable!
tanya shildrick
2009-10-29 08:57:43


I'm afraid I have to agree with Tanya. It's a bit like Jedward still being in X Factor - there so much real talent out there, you wonder why the space is not given to the more worthy.
Adam Graff
2009-10-31 13:18:07


i think that this is really intregining makes me think back to my childhood
elyse jellicoe
2009-11-02 03:52:32


Complex does not make it better, simple does not mean it is less sophisticated. I agree these illustrations are intriguing; yet I feel as if the artist is working through or toward something greater. It's easy to dismiss this one as childlike but I think the vehicle works. The way the show is hung denotes those primary school exhibitions, static, a little clumsy at times, but it's the children, the seemingly meek that possess the real power with the delightfully wicked laser beams.
Jocko
2009-11-02 13:24:27


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