Gilbert & George: The Paradisical Pictures

This particular paradise – paradise being the common goal of spiritual and secular life on Earth – inhabited or traversed by Gilbert & George, is a place where the very air is drugged. From picture to picture the artists are subject to biomorphic alteration into vegetable states – a turn of events that would be cartoon-like and absurd were it not so equally sinister.

The dead yet watchful eyes of Gilbert & George stare sleeplessly from grotesque detritus of fruits and flowers; from masks of dead leaves – details of spirit faces, as the artists themselves are seen first pursued by unseen wonders or horrors, then finally exhausted, worn out, in a sleep that seems to promise no rest.

The longer you look at these Paradisical Pictures, the more they suggest a chapter in a story that has been unfolding before them and will continue beyond them. This ‘paradise’ is not a destination but a stage on a longer journey. It is a dream of paradise – the exploration of an archetype; to be granted bliss, eternal rest, true life, revelation, the answer to life’s mysteries.