Simon Tyszko lives and works in London.
He has work in a number of private
collections, and has recently been included in exhibitions and events
at the ICA, London and the Jerwood Gallery, London.
Theculture features an extensive collection of tyszko documentation.
Critique
Although working with a diverse range of media,
Simon Tyszko’s work is a unity.
The artist’s materials include neon, video, bookworks,
whole apartments (phlight), fabrics and assembled objects,
whose area of exploration tends to a retrospective
enquiry of the emotions, usually autobiographical,
and often based around the family.
Presented as highly finished objects, their polished physical
perfectness
belies the potent narratives that are behind them.
Personal critiques, they are based on reminiscences of resentment,
hurt, or reflective regret, the artist tempering his memories
with a restrained, stylish humour,
often creating a mood of ambiguous playfulness.
The joys and dysfunctional tragedies described
in Tyszko’s understanding of home life are complemented
by his imaginative analysis of the wider, politicised social body.
Failing socio-economic and cultural value systems and their remorseless,
cruel glamour and exploitation – such as advertising,
geo-political economics, legislative prohibition (drugs), and pop culture,
all become areas of concern in the twists and turns of the artist’s
psychological dynamic.
Whether using neon (the
core symbol of consumer culture), actual
cocaine,
sound,
or by the homely knitting of incongruous garments – straitjackets –
Tyszko’s practice identifies social forms against which the artist
places
the prismatic dramas that are his art practice.
.