FEEL THE CONFIDENCE
27 February - 16 March 2013
Opening Night | Thursday 28 February, 6-8pm
Jon Hewitt
Born out of my inherent baldness, a clamor for recognition, a healthy distain for the art world and a fascination with repetition, identity, appropriation and the use of humour as material, I have created Feel the confidence. Feel the confidence has a conceptual edition of 1,731,752,324, one for every male pattern baldness sufferer on the planet. At BLINDSIDE, an edition of Feel the confidence will be hung each day of the exhibition, so as to fill the gallery with prints over the duration of the show.
IMAGES |Jon Hewitt, Feel the confidence, 2011 | Images courtesy of the artist.
‘feel the confidence’, editions 3 – 21 of 1,731,752,324., 2013.
‘it’s suprising to learn that 1 in 2 men suffer from hair loss, and a real shock to discover you are that one in two... so call ashley and martin today and enjoy the confidence tomorrow. call 1300 HAIR LOSS’ (1)
‘... the whole process of modernisation begins to be seen as wasted, excessive time that can and should be documented precisely because it never leads to any result....but precisely because such a wasted, suspended, non-historical time cannot be accumulated and absorbed by its product, it can be repeated – impersonally and, potentially, infinitely. nietzsche stated that the only possible way to think about infinity after the death of god, after the end of transcendence is: the eternal return of the same. georges bataille thematised the repetitive excess of time, the unproductive waste of time, as the only possibility to escape the modern ideology of progress. certainly both nietzsche and bataille perceived repetition as something naturally given. but in his book difference and repetition (1968) gilles deleuze speaks of literal repetition as being radically artificial and, in this sense, as being in conflict with everything natural, living, changing, developing, including natural and moral law. hence, practising literal repetition can be seen as initiating a rupture in the continuity of historical life and creating a non-historical excess of time by means of art. and here is the point at which art becomes historically contemporary.’ (2)
matthew collings; ‘do you think the art world can cope with absurdity at the moment? contemporary art people on the whole lead self-indulgent lives. they’re incredibly shallow. they’re terrified of not being thought of as up to date. they feel anxious about the reality of all that and they want to escape from the anxiety by a charade. they pretend to themselves they are serious not frivolous, and responsible not selfish. but anyone not actually playing along can see immediately that it’s fake’.
bob smith; ‘well i suppose the answer to your question would depend on whether you thought absurdity was self-indulgent. i think its moral to be absurd. the world is really absurd. the things we get up to – politicians and everything – are so crazy that embracing absurd things is somehow an area of sanity. people might think it is irresponsible, but that’s not my take on it. because we’re patronised, aren’t we? we’re patronised by people telling us things work in certain ways. you have to take on board all these orthodoxies that you’re taught at school, and that beats the creativity out of you’. (3)
bald head, bald head, but i don’t care, but he don’t care.
i aint’ got no use for hair,
bald head, bald head, but i don’t mind, but he don’t mind.
i like my head to shine,
bald head, yeah, bald head,
with a bald head, you know where you are
i don’t know, he don’t know but i been told, but he been told
not everything that shines is gold
bald head, bald head what you gona do, what you gona do,
shine my head when i shine my shoe.
bald head, yeah, bald head
with a bald head, you know where you are
bald head, bald head, understand, understand,
i am a bald head shiny man.
bald head, yeah bald head,
with a bald head, you know where you are.
alright! yeah! bald head bald head bald head bald head bald head. (4)
by Jon Hewitt.
1) ashley and martin tv commmerical, 2007
2) ‘how to do time with art’, boris groys, 2010, tate publishing
3) ‘make your own damn art’ bob and roberta smith, 2005 black dog publishing.
4) ‘bald head’ by nine ton peanut smugglers, 2005 released on alopecia records.
jon hewitt is an artist because he is not good-looking enough to be a model, athletic enough to be a football player, passionate enough to be an actor, rhythmic enough to be a musician or clever enough to be a scientist.
he received honours in fine art at oxford brookes university.
hewitt has exhibited in australia and internationally and completed a residency at red gate gallery, beijing, china.
in 2010 he ran the trans-siberian arts centre with artist britt salt.
hewitt’s work is held in collections in australia, the uk and usa.
he never uses capital letters. ever.