An exhibition of Deliberate Regression

	Story by Jack Foley

A NEW exhibition, entitled Deliberate Regression at Danielle Arnaud contemporary art from September 20 to October 27, aims to map the melancholic mood that echoes in the contemporary experiences.

According to a spokesman for the gallery: "As a trace of Romantic age, this sensibility reappears through constant longing and feeling of withdrawal, gains different articulations; glorifies passionate instincts, shamelessly searches exotic spaces of fantasy, invites to regress into childish demand for the miraculous."

The exhibition will feature the work of nine artists, all of whom have something to say about contemporary art - be it through photography, video or paintings.

Tom Hunter's photographs, for example, feature the dusk transforming Hackney's wastelands into a dramatic fairytale setting, while David Blandy's video reworks the digital computer game landscape into the majestic image of the primeval woods.

Milena Dragicevic's and Maaike Shoorel's paintings touch upon melancholia of modernist architecture, as well as intimate spaces of portraits, while Vita Zaman's video documents girls in a provincial town in Lithuania, who are training to become exotic dancers in Saudi Arabia (pictured right).

Both Mindaugas Simkus (whose video work is pictured above) and Ivan Morison explore the notion of artists as a Romantic outsider, while Clara Ursitti stages a performative narrative where passions and animal instincts rule.

A catalogue with essays by Camila Jalving and Shumon Basar will also be published as part of the exhibition.

Deliberate Regression, Danielle Arnaud contemporary art, 123 Kennington Road London SE11 6SF. Opening times: Friday, Saturday and Sunday 2–6pm (or by appointment).