DIGReview

Advent

Zoe Clifton

Thursday 3 December 2009

The Left Bank Centre is currently hosting an exciting new exhibition, aptly named Advent. It explores the history of Christmas and the days leading up to the birth of Christ, but also incorporates 24 artists work, using different mediums in order to express Christmas-themed words.

The variety of art on display is very impressive. There’s everything from spray painted images of a donkey to comic strips about the shepherds. My favourite was the word ‘innkeeper’, which was interpreted by Martin Wilson, with a strip of coloured negatives. He’d spelt out the phrase ‘no room at the inn’, using bold lettering from pub names and instead of having blank spaces between the words, he’d captured images of pub signs. This interpretation reflects, for me, the commercialism of Christmas as well as being a modern day take on the story of the innkeeper.

Some of the art work on display is also for sale, with prices varying from £100 to £2000. It’s definitely worth taking a look around the exhibition, which is running on weekends until the 20th of December, between 11am and 4pm. It helps to bring out the festive spirit, whilst reminding us of what Christmas is all about, with even some bleak, yet informative information about what life is now like in Bethlehem.