Concept

Engagement is a way of capturing attention, a way of alluring and a way of enticing to possess ownership. We could implement this as a way of attracting an audience, being drawn into a system and in turn be captivated. Such methods can include smoke screens, masquerade and stings.

We can be engaged in political upheaval and in contrast engaged to be married. Either way if one shows the willingness to engage then they are seized, arrested and caught, through an innocent human desire to absorb and be engrossed.

What happens when this engagement is done in a malicious, unlawful and corrupted way? When does the real become hyper-real? Entrapment is the process of this transition to occupy whether through political, artistic or personal systems.

What is the ethical concern over this? Is the viewer guilty for being engrossed in a piece of work that is deemed vulgar or inappropriate; a guilty pleasure? Is the accused guilty until proven innocent? Is the artist wrongly committed for a self-indulgent expression? Does this polarity repel or assist the convicted?

International artists have been invited to submit work which explores a subversive engagement, use tactics and trickery to captivate and which contests rules and laws of a system. Aesthetically, artists works entices the audience, engages them in viewing and ultimately entrap them into the work. Will the viewer be engrossed, cheated or convicted?

Works featured include traditional art forms of photography, painting and sculpture but also the contemporary processes of interventions, installations and new media.

Flyer

Flyer

Sheila Wright



Limassol, Cyprus

‘One God’

Acrylic on Canvas.  Framed size 156 cm x 106  cm
  
€860 (commissions accepted)

‘One God’ carries an appeal for peace in the world.
Garlic, oranges and chestnuts show via their structure, that they are from the same point of origin.
Regardless of our beliefs, we come from the same phenomenal creative process, whatever that was. Why then do diverse beliefs divide us?
A viewer suspends his/her disbelief to engage with the artist in accepting the illusion. The shapes on the canvas take form in an imaginary place, the accentuated colour values and distorted scale speaking a new language to each participant as they conjoin with past experiences and emotions.
In the picture frame anything is possible, limited only by our willingness to accept.