Skip to main content

Jamie Fitzpatrick: He He He He

12 October – 7 December 2019

Go to slide:

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8

Colourful, charmingly lo-fi, performative work by exciting British artist, Jamie Fitzpatrick sets patriarchal authoritarianism’s tired aggression in its sights and, with absurdity, contradiction and humiliation, finds antidote to poisoned, popular representations of masculinity.

Oppressive 20th Century iconography and the historic struggle for civil liberties play major roles in Fitzpatrick’s installation, He He He He, having been invited to explore Rochdale’s collection of artefacts relating to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. The use of cavalry to suppress peaceful protest in that instance, and the looming influence of ‘heroic’ male figures in popular culture finds the likes of Elvis Presley and Henry Moore enrolled as protagonists in multimedia installations that shred ideas of supremacy on the basis of circumstantial attributes such as gender, class and race.

Working alone and appearing as the only performer in his moving image work, London-based Fitzpatrick casts a wry glance at the ever-shifting position between subordination and empowerment, journeying though historic and contemporary Britain, assumed authority and humiliation.