For his show at DeVleeshal gallery, Dylan Graham has created a large-scale installation of a dome-like structure incorporating images of slavery and containing treasures from colonial times. The New Zealand-born artist has recently been working on a series of meticulously detailed paper cutouts inspired by the Mexican folk art of papel picado (perforated paper). Graham used the folklore of this ornate craftasmanship as a means of commenting on the cruelty of colonialism from the days of the Dutch East India Company to the present situation of immigration and forced migration. In his current show, he has augmented the scale of his work and has shifted his choice of materials yet his statement against the consequences of these events has remained firm. So has the legacy of the delicateness and qrotesque nature of the papel picado technique.
Marilena Astrapellou
Dylan Graham, to 2 September
DE KABINETTEN VAN DE VLEESHAL
Zusterstraat 7
4330 LA Middelburg
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