Luke Newton — # — A2Z Art Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: September 19 → October 10, 2015

For this new exhibition, Luke Newton appropriates a symbol of our contemporary society, the hashtag. Composed of the typographical sign “#” followed by one or more words joined together, the hashtag has become essential with the spectacular development of social networks. More than just a keyword, it is today the communication tool within the reach of all of the web culture.

The hashtag is used to centralize messages, ideas around a specific term and thus brings together all those doing research on this topic. It has become a natural way for people who want to come together, to form groups, but also to get some recognition. After having federated discussions, this symbol began to federate causes. A new hashtag thus appearing after each news topic. This symbol allows anyone to change the world of information, to not be a prisoner of the headlines of the Press, each person having the possibility to highlight what seems important to him.

After having appropriated and reinterpreted many symbols of our society, it is the hashtag that Luke Newton tackles this time. In all the forms that his art may take, this young artist confronts the viewer with the obvious : the hashtag is everywhere, you cannot escape it.

Luke Newton’s works give us a new perception of things by exaggerating the use of the “#” symbol, until the overdose, a bit like our current consumption patterns.

During this exhibition, the viewer will feel immersed in a web page, drowned under a flood of hashtag. This is for Luke Newton a way to physically confront the public with a reality that may take usually only know that behind their screens …

#LukeNewton #A2ZArtGallery