Woodrow White - "Babel Video"

Hashimoto Contemporary SF is pleased to present Babel Video, a solo exhibition by Woodrow White. The artist will transform the gallery into a video-rental store, complete with hand-painted DVDs and movie posters from the White’s created universe of fictitious films. 

Woodrow White’s paintings explore the failure of illusion by examining the nexus of narrative, history, and artifice. White’s work speaks to the anxiety surrounding the validity of information, where trust in images has been irreparable damaged by mass consumption. The artist’s iconoclastic paintings are in response to our current, seemingly-apocalyptic, news headlines. Each tableau draws upon politically divisive topics like climate change, social inequalities, economics, and war. 

For the exhibition, the artist will physically alter the gallery space into a video-rental store filled with a collection of imaginary films. Viewers are invited to browse through the shelves to discover titles like Toxic Masculinity II, Feminazis, and Fluid of the Druids. In addition to the hand-painted DVDs, the show will also feature large-scale paintings of movie posters advertising invented blockbusters. 

Babel Video is a response to Hollywood’s syndication of escapism. White is particularly interested in the industry’s rampant obsession with genre franchises. The exhibition title references both the biblical myth of the Tower of Babel, as well as the short story ‘The Library of Babel’ by Jose Luis Borges. The artist elaborates on his vision as an “absurdist Borgesian storefront filled with forgotten films you can’t even find on the internet.”

Please join us for Babel Video, opening Saturday, January 6 with an evening reception from 6pm - 9pm, where the artist will be in attendance. This exhibition will be on view through Saturday, January 27. For more information, additional images, or exclusive content, please email us at info@hashimotocontemporary.com.