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The Last Dance
/ Ships Passing in the Night
Recent work
by Malcolm Smith
13 - 31 May, 2012
Lir Space
Baciro, Yogyakarta
This exhibition
comprises two bodies of work; Ships Passing
in the Night and The Last Dance. They are different series
but were both created around the same time so I guess that's why they
share a similar atmosphere. Both series take place late at night, when
we are prone to fill the shadows with our imaginations - the ghosts
of the past and our fears for the future.
These images
describe the moment when our dreams fail and hope turns into
disappointment.
There's a sense of melancholy that runs through them, but there's some
humor also, which I hope you can appreciate. We can either live in fear
of our frailty and our humanity, or we can laugh about it.
Ships Passing in
the Night is an idiom from before the time of steam or
coal
powered shipping. In the era when sailing ships glided silently across
the vast and lonely oceans, two ships passing close by at night might
easily fail to notice each other. The phrase is often used in the
context
of one-night-stands, but on a deeper level, it also refers to lost
opportunities
or unrealised potential.
The Last Dance is the final track the DJ plays
before the nightclub closes. In those final minutes we must face the
practicalities we've avoided all night; how to get home before the sun
rises, before the drugs wear off, before our housemate/partner/parent
wakes up, or before the person we've just picked up sees us in daylight
and realises how old/ugly/out-of-it I am.
For a few hours
we had been united
in the collective fantasy that the world was better and that we were
its shining lights. The Last Dance signals the end of that dream,
the imminent crash into reality, where we are no longer special; just
ordinary.
About the opening night, read here.
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Photographed by Dito Yuwono
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