'Red Flag' - Adam Hisham Ismail (Studio Payoka)

A new solo by Studio Payoka art collective artist Adam Hisham Ismail, together with a major collaborative work with Studio Payoka artists William Leggett and Scott Robson.

Red Flag: A Cautionary Tale.


Red Flag is an exhibition which operates through a multitude of disparate narratives, each dealing with the motif of the 'Red Flag'. Traditionally used to signal danger, here they can be found littered through vivid, miniaturised flower beds supporting unknowable figures, god-like and beleaguered upon their respective paths. The body of work was conceived through a visceral response to the artist’s recent personal experiences. There is an undeniably ominous undertone to the presented narratives, though the atmosphere of levity in which they appear to coalesce is an almost divine counterpoint.

In basic terms, this is a show about caution when traversing (both literal and metaphorical) dangerous terrain.

Through the use of found and constructed miniature forms made from materials including ceramic, plastic, wood, wire, flowers, concrete, the artist takes a 'Frankenstein' approach to construction and assembly of the anthropomorphic/zoomorphic form in order to recontextualise said objects which align with the red-flag motif.

Spread out across the floor are a number of evenly placed, evenly raised white narrow plinths with enough room between them that one might easily weave a path from one plinth to the next. They support independent small scale 'ecosystems' housed in glass domes. Each ecosystem contains a small piece of a narrative of a larger story. They are complemented by a series of wall-mounted photographic works which document the various stages at which which the smaller ecosystems were conceived. The largest photographic work, a collaboration with Studio Payoka artists William Leggett and Scott Robson depicts some of the figures which appear within the domes - here staged in 'one possible reality'.

Using this 'branching narrative' structure the artist has found a freedom to explore more than one arrangement of an overall concept. Figures can be seen with new growth emerging from their humps along with symbolic red flags, in some cases not unlike condensed road maps or golf courses which protrude from within. Others present as impaled by the flags, conjuring notions of Saint Sebastian and other historical martyrs and unfortunates, their persecutions recounted in an indelibly religious manner.