The High Life will be Lydia Blakeley’s largest solo exhibition in the UK presenting a series of paintings, painted sculptural sun loungers and cool box planters containing cacti and crystals.
Taking the 1995 Microsoft advertising campaign ‘Where do you want to go today?’ as a point of departure – where a montage of people connect and explore via the internet – and linking it with the Covid-19 pandemic – where people had to experience the world through the internet – Blakeley’s installation looks at the digital realm of escapism during a period of crisis. Using imagery from holiday websites and the influx of budget holiday adverts, Blakeley’s intention for the paintings is to ‘suspend those fleeting and aspirational scenes for the viewer’s contemplation’.
