Jack W. Holden,  'THE FOCUS GROUP'

paintings - video - sculptures - photocollages

oct 23 - nov 27   2010

opening: oct 23, 17 - 19 h

 

The Focus Group has become a ubiquitous tool for the public relations industry. The Group, chosen for its demographic value, is asked to describe its innermost desires, perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a product or a brand. Perhaps this is to test run an advertisement or to assess the performance and policy of a well- known politician or political party. But are there focus groups where there is no motive to sell anything? Is there, for instance, such a focus group where society is able to dictate what Pornography it wants? Or is porn just given to us by the powers that be? Who decides what is sexy and what is not? It is common practice in porn movies for the man to ejaculate into the woman's face – but who decided this was sexy? The powers that be, or people taking part in a focus group?

The solo exhibition of Jack Holden, ‘Focus Group’ is a meditation on the rise of one idea that has come to dominate Western society – the belief that the satisfaction of individual feelings and desires is our highest priority. As with the appropriation of Freudian theory among advertisers, it became clear to sociologists that responses were emotional and that they might be driven by subconscious sexual or aggressive drives and that if these were linked to a product, its sales would increase dramatically. Political policy and product scientifically becomes more superficial - deliver to the voter his subconscious desires, even though he may not know he has them. And the veil of illusion between the consumer and his consumption increases ever more.

The exhibition 'The Focus Group’ is Holden’s response to a World over-populated with emotive images – both from big business and from Governments. These images are coded and have unconscious messages that are designed to touch on the desires and fears of the consumer. Holden became interested in whether pornographic images are coded in the same way. Buying a contemporary porn magazine picked at random, Holden gave himself the task of producing a new series of works inspired only by what was inside. From this project emerged a variety of work made in different mediums, including digital c-print photographs, silkscreen prints, paintings, video and ceramic sculptures.

The aim of the exhibition 'The Focus Group’ is to be just what it says it is. We invite you the audience (the consumer) to take part in this focus group and ask you the following questions:

Is there a coded message in Pornography?

Is Pornography a byproduct of what is conveyed by the mass media?

What do you personally find sexy? Do you find any of the works in this exhibition sexy? Does Porn have nothing to sell but men’s sexual misogynistic desires, or is big business also involved?

Does Porn succeed in mirroring our inner desires and ideas of divine beauty or does it mirror our collective loneliness?

Is porn gratifying for men because it makes them feel more powerful than women? What would porn look like if it were designed from the collected data of a focus group?