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TCB
1-5 Wilkinson St
Brunswick 3056
Victoria, Australia
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TCB acknowledges the people of the Kulin Nations as the traditional custodians of the land, recognising their connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to their Elders; past, present and future.
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SPENCER LAI
LENTO VIOLENTO
03 Mar 2016—19 Mar 2016
LENTO VIOLENTO (translated from Italian as ‘SLOW AND VIOLENT’), is a subtype of Hardcore and Electronic Dance Music, generally produced between the speeds of 70 and 120 BPM. This substyle of music incorporates a hard bass kickback, a hangover from Techno style and a placeholder for Hardstyle subset. The vocals and lyrics may or may not feature dark/acidic undertones.
This club is packed with bitchy behaviour and rude mind games paired with an unrelenting beat, consistent and militant — control group focus group togetherness, malicious intent…
..recontextualizing and shifting visual information, borrowed from the formal, compositional and material language of visual merchandising, fashion and nightclubs, LENTO VIOLENTO presents a menacing, albeit subdued violence — think ultra-ambient house music — not nice…the exhibition’s ambient toil reflects the valorization of aggression, a stillness of violence…
who… does this bitch… think she is…
… but On a larger scale, LENTO VIOLENTO investigates subcultures that display and uphold visual forms of affectual violence – torn, ripped, worn, left to rot….cuddly ….current wayward identification politics are anchored by the frayed and dog-eared edges of mass cultural subconscious.
Inspired by commercial imaging and material frameworks of identification, these pieces drift between emotionless objectification and heartfelt grievances.
Spencer Lai combines skilled and unskilled processes that utilize techniques of bricolage and applique, generally working with sculptural assemblage and CGI animation. Spencer’s work experiments with the lexicon of design, fashion, and window display, with specific focus on subcultures, identity and aesthetic cultures. Their process involves the collation and editing of found and personal materials, objects and clothing to reflect and disseminate narratives surrounding consumerist cultural consciousness.
Spencer completed their BFA (with Honours) from VCA in 2014. A selection of recent exhibitions include: An Awful Leisure (as Monica’s Gallery) at Pansy (2016); The Bathhouse Show curated by Ella Krivanek in collaboration with Dorothy Siemens, Tokyo (2016); youth, born at brunch (from a Wish) at George Paton Gallery (2015); CABIN FEVER CREATURE and Boulevard (as Monica’s Gallery) at Gertrude Contemporary, both curated by Centre for Style (2015); the smell of an oily rag at Fort Delta (2015), do you want me to come downstairs, with rollers in my hair? (as Monica’s Gallery) at BLINDSIDE (2014).
Spencer Lai is a co-founder of the artist/curatorial collective Monica’s Gallery, alongside Jake Swinson. They currently work and live in Melbourne.
