Simon Lee Gallery, Hong Kong is pleased to announce a presentation of new works by Gary Simmons, comprising drawings and a painting, which continue the artist’s ongoing exploration into the politics of race and identity through his signature ‘erasure drawings’.
In this new series, Simmons positions seemingly benign images of lighthouses and watchtowers in comparison to one another in terms of function and as metaphors for surveillance in the US. Alternately symbols of hope and oppression, the light house acts as a point of arrival and an emblem of safety, while conversely, the watch tower is a metaphor for the omnipotent hand of the law and a revealing symbol for the American prison system. While the act of erasure renders the imagery ghostly and uncertain, the viewer is nonetheless struck by the clear divergence between looking to a light house and being surveyed from a watch tower. These arresting works cast a light on the deep-rooted issues surrounding inequality and race in the US, and implicate the artist and viewer in this struggle.
