In Together We Stand, Luc Goidadin presents new works which explore a grotesque and darkly comic world exposing figures of authority and human absurdity. Drawing on the visual language of cartoons, religious iconography and political satire, Luc’s figures are at once victim and perpetrator, comical and menacing, commanding and ridiculous. The environments they find themselves in are either abstracted landscapes, askew under toxic skies or solid-coloured backgrounds, like empty stages which depend on actors to conjure up a sense of place.

The figure of the political and corporate everyman is a recurring character trapped in a technicolour Grand Guignol. When suited, he draws on the paraphernalia of power, projecting control as well as compliance and conformity. When donning Y-fronted underpants, he is revealed an object of vulnerability and ridicule. Beyond symbols of shame or tawdry objects of decorum, underpants deny their wearer the status of the art-historical Nude. Other characters are more allegorical, like relatable avatars of universal relevance. In turn, they are either knowing subjects, gazing out to the viewer, or seemingly unaware, engaged in existential conflicts, delusions and introspections. The chair is another leitmotif. A rare prop in this sparsely furnished universe, it acts as a fluctuating emblem of status and submission, of comfort and restriction.

Tropes belonging to twentieth century advertising and commercial art are recognisable throughout, from the immediacy of colour to the grandiloquence of heightened expression. The works on paper particularly recall the physicality of propaganda posters or public health notices. There are clear nods to the political cartoons of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries, as exemplified by Gillray and Daumier, with their tradition of acerbic insight and a deep relish for the preposterous. Allusions to Catholic iconography, particularly the work of Early Netherlandish Painters, echo through some of the paintings. Modern day understudies of angels, saints and martyrs look down from aluminium and acetate panels.

Together We Stand is presented in the old Pollock Toy and Theatrical Print Shop. Its jaunty early Victorian interior and historical connection to play and performance make it an ideal setting for this body of work.