43 1/2 x 93 in
Gordon Cheung’s first solo show in Germany takes place from September 5th to October 18th, 2008 at Galerie ADLER in Frankfurt am Main. The show‘s title takes it’s name from James Jesus Angleton‘s phrase ‘Wilderness of Mirrors’ with which he used to describe the double-agent confusion and strange loops of espionage. James Jesus Angleton was a long-serving chief of CIA’s counter-intelligence staff in the 1950s and many commentators believe that Angleton took the term from T. S. Eliot’s poem ‘Gerontion’ with whom he was friendly with. The title of the show alludes to landscape and the dark undertones of conspiracy and paranoia. Cheung’s multi-media paintings reflect his interests in the power structures, belief systems and our obedience to them. In formal terms he twists the figure ground relationship into an oscillating mobius strip. The initial perception of his paintings seem to exist in the figurative dimension yet closer inspection reveals that the base of all his paintings are actually stock listings from the Financial Times. These abstract numerical lists flatten the space and paradoxically signifies a virtual reality that intertwines our real lives on a global scale.