by Kentaro Kobuke

This October the Dazed Gallery is proud to present work from some of the most exciting young artists currently working in London and Tokyo. Curated by St Martin's graduate and widely exhibited artist Kounosuke Kawakami, Twenty explores themes of melodrama and melancholia with work that ranges from Kounosuke's own eerie and deeply atmospheric landscapes that explore “the multilateral relationship between urbanism and nature” to Kentaro Kobuke's nostalgia-inducing, strangely child-like portraiture, Matt Franks's idiosyncratic take on the disposable nature of modern culture, Akiko Takizawa's warped, alien landscapes and Stine Ljungdalh's theatrical explorations of the human condition. All the work challenges pre-conceived ideas and notions about the subject matter it addresses and to say that the exhibition covers a wide range of mediums is an understatement, anyone who steps through the doors of the gallery will find themselves within a nucleus representative of some of the most profoundly imaginative minds of our generation. Here, the artist Matt Franks talks specifically about the work he has created for the show...

Dazed Digital: Tell us about the work you are showing in Twenty...
Matt Franks: 'Infinity' is an affectionate living room scale homage to cultural fragmentation; mirror-plated, flocked and covered with fake fur, the symbol is electric blue, part abstraction, part 80s cocaine chic, part pseudo-abstraction; it suggests science, technology, certainty, forever, luxury and disposability. Materially the work is a product of the petroleum industry – cheap, mass-produced, toxic – it’s disposable yet will not decay.

DD: What do you want to communicate to viewers of your work?
MF: I want people to engage with the work as both humorous and absurd, and as a comment about our values. It's desirable and pseudo-sexual, reflecting our lust for consumer consumption.

DD: What do you think the role of the artist is in society if they have one at all?
MF: To avoid roles.

DD: Do you think Andre Gide was right when he said that as society became more ugly it's art would become more abstract?
MF: Neither has happened, as the art market demands something else, fashions come and go, abstraction suits one generation and not the subsequent one as a vehicle for critique.

DD: What has inspired you lately?
MF: A new studio, new shoes, swimming in the Mediterranean and looking forward to being a father.

Oct 2 to Nov 5, The Dazed Gallery, 112-116 Old Street, London EC1V 9BD
Opening Party Oct 2, 7-9pm. Twenty is kindly sponsored by Asahi.