Opening reception: James J. Robinson

Join us for the opening reception of On Golden Days. This is James J. Robinson’s first solo-exhibition, where he is deconstructing the architecture of nostalgia.

The past is portrayed systemically in our culture as a bygone era of innocence and purity. Through films, literature, music, we tend to reflect idealistically on collective history as a way of anaesthetising contemporary anxiety. However, this yearning for ’golden days’ means we fetishise an era where prejudice against minorities was rampant – erasing the lived experiences of marginalised peoples. Without the just retelling of history, who benefits?

Raising funds for Pay The Rent, On Golden Days takes the absurdity of glorifying the past and flips it on its head; calling on Robinson’s queer, Filipino identity to rewrite history with a series of photographs and video work starring an extensive Asian cast.