NATHAN COLEY: NO GOLDEN RULES

Nathan Coley’s first solo exhibition in South Korea includes a selection of important works emblematic of his practice: a series of signature large-scale illuminated text works; related small-scale lightbox works, and a group of sculptures representing buildings from different faiths. The exhibition’s title is taken from a phrase by the Humanist playwright, critic and philosopher George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), who said that ‘The Golden Rule is that there are no golden rules.’

 

Coley is interested in the idea of ‘public’ space, and his practice explores the ways in which architecture becomes invested – and reinvested – with meaning. Across a range of media Coley investigates what the built environment reveals about the people it surrounds and how the social and individual response to it is in turn culturally conditioned. Using the readymade to take from and resituate ideas and images in the world, Coley addresses the ritual forms we use to articulate our beliefs – from hand-held placards and public signage to sacred places and sanctuaries. Whether listing in illuminated letters the five ‘Rights of Man’ under Islam or rendering buildings from Giotto’s frescoes as signs of protest, his work frequently turns the specific into the general, thereby testing its function as a form of social representation.