flavorpill

When asked about his obsessive pursuit of symmetry and stillness, Jacob Love may deny that he is a perfectionist, yet at first glance that is what the viewer is faced with: a utopia unsullied by human intervention. Love gives us swimming pools without the swimmers. More complex than they first appear, they are not just images of pools. Love provides the viewer with a re-envisioning of a familiar British leisure space, and provokes them to question notions of freedom and self-fulfillment. Love's images, split between what is known and concrete and that which is more fluid or implied, engage with the point at which the real meets the virtual. The horizon line where these two worlds meet acts as a precipice between the reality of the viewer’s existence and the perfection they strive for. By inverting the image the viewer is in danger of losing grip of their utopia and falling into the mess of their own realities. Alluding to the anxiety or cognitive dissonance encountered when our ideals confront our reality, Love's images remain ambiguous, hovering somewhere between hope and hubris. Steeped in the wonder of infinite possibility they remain aware of the inevitable and painful collapse into the actual. Living and working in London, Love is a Goldsmiths graduate and has his first solo show at Tenderpixel Gallery, London from 21/5/09 to 09/06/09.