Some Kind of Agit Prop Monster (2010) is a remix of the ‘Sex The And The City 2′ trailer. By appropriating this and compositing it with footage from news media, YouTube.com and Wikileaks, it examines existing narratives about the West’s relationship to the middle east. The somewhat absurd and insensitive original, acts as a jumping-board to highlight our obsession with desire, debauchery and sluts – and its ultimate cost. It creates a warped version of a pre-processed reality, in which we get a glimpse at how disturbing narratives from our geographical and socio-political circumstances are played out and presented to us as entertainment. Re-examining the film through this lens could also be seen as an attempt to expose certain subtexts in Hollywood narratives, highlighting their ideological dogma and political agendas and maybe more importantly; how we consume it.
About the artist
Alan Butler was born in Dublin in 1981. He completed his BA of Fine Art (specialising in new media) in NCAD in 2004 and has complimented his prolific studio practice with various curatorial, art-community and art management projects. Some of these include work for the Dublin Fringe Festival, Dublin Art Fair ’08, Monster Truck Gallery & Studios, Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Blackletter.ie (Irish online art-community) and the Dublin Arts and Technology Association (DATA). Since his MAFA at LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore (2008-09) Butler’s art work has featured in projects and exhibitions at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore, Hatje Cantz Con prefazione di Angela Vettese, Venice and École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris. Most recently, he has had solo exhibitions at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin, Cake Contemporary Arts, Kildare and G126, Galway, as well as various group shows in Ireland and abroad. He currently occupies a project studio at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, where he listens to Gwar. (Text: April 2011)
