Simply Read 

24th May – 15th June 2008

For its second exhibition Supplement presents new works by Steve Bishop. During 2007 Bishop was awarded a travel bursary from the Villiers David Trust to visit North America. This took him on a road trip from Washington State to Alaska in search of a truth presented to him by television.

The works in the exhibition were made in response to Bishop's travels in North America. The exhibition Simply Read elaborates upon the idea of virtuality; Bishop presents us with the familiar re-visited in video, print and sculpture; where imagery is deployed with a keen sense of formalism and underpinned by an incisive wit.

Sculptural works made using concrete and taxidermied woodland creatures occupy the exhibition space. A fox and deer are individually enveloped in a concrete Matroyshka (Russian Doll), and unsettling and compelling combination.

On the walls of the gallery an image of a rifle-range target, shot by Bishop with AK47 whilst in America sits uncomfortably with a lone moose roaming the deserted streets in Twin Exposure. This works is a split screen video in which Bishop attempts to recreate the title credits of the cult 90s television series Northern Exposure. Set in Cicely, Alaska the series was actually filmed in Roslyn, Washington State. Bishop visited the filming location to remake, shot for shot, the original sequence. Bishop addresses how we construct reality from perceived truths, where the borders of fiction and actual experience converge.