David Palacios -

Conversation Pieces from the Museum of Unrest

Featuring: Naiza Khan, Lilophilia, Naho Matsuda, David Palacios, John Phillips

ArtReports

Image in two equal sections split vertically on the left is the silhouette of a vase and plant behind a curtain on the right a smaller version of the same silhouette with statistical information the economic cost of violence.

From The Secret Garden, Title (APPENDIX D) - Economic Cost of Violence. Graphics-Painting. Medium Acrylic paint on PVC material. Size 180 x 240 cms Date 2018.

Image of Julian Assange set against a grid painted in colours proportionally representing statistics for asylum seekers to USA

Title Asylum seekers in the United States, 2012. Medium Acrylic paint on digital print. Size 77 x 89 cms. Date 2012

Image of naked female figure set against a grid painted in colours proportionally representing statistics for forced labour

Title Forced Labour in numbers, Medium Acrylic paint on digital print. Size 77 x 89 cms. Date 2012

Image of horse and rider set against a grid painted in colours proportionally representing statistics of racist incidents by police area

Title Racist incidents by police force area, 2012. Medium Acrylic paint on digital print. Size 77 x 89 cm Date 2012

Image of figure running set against a grid painted in colours proportionally representing discrimination statistics against members of different communities

Title Harassment and discrimination (Racial or religious harassment), Medium Acrylic paint on digital print. Size 77 x 89 cms Date 2012

Black and white photograph in the style of Ojeikere intergrating statistics of domestic violence in Nigeria

Title Domestic Violence (Nigeria) - Tribute to JD Aihumekeokhai Ojeikere. Medium Digital print. 2016. Size 60 x 84 cms. Date 2016

Palacios’s creative practice explores the ever-evolving languages o fart and visual representation through a process of appropriation, deconstruction and reinvention. Drawing on a variety of indicators, including comparative charts, percentile analysis and statistical diagrams his Graphics-Painting methodology employs statistical facts and figures and converts these ‘pie and bar charts of everyday oppressions’ into an image comprised of equivalent percentages of pigment. In effect the quantities of pigment in these paintings (whether abstract or figurative) contain, rather than represent, this ‘background’ information. The process of making these images differs from a traditional computer graphics approach, which seeks to visually illustrate facts. By contrast, his images seek to represent information through its physical embodiment in pigment and paint.

David Palacios (1967, Havana, Cuba), graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts “San Alejandro” and The Polytechnic Institute for Industrial Design, Havana, Cuba.

In 1997 he emigrated to Venezuela where he lived until 2007, from 2013 to 2021 he lived between Nigeria, Zimbabwe and the UK. He is currently based in London, UK.