REVIEW: Nathan Cash Davidson: Feather That Boa An Email at Hannah Barry Gallery

19th May – 16th June 2011
Nathan Cash Davidson has youth on his side and his energetic vaulting from oil painting to poetry via rap and now video installation by way of Renaissance painting,
Alan Sugar, mythology and YouTube (to name a few influences) is, frankly, dazzling. He garnered a lot of favourable attention recently for mounting a solo painting show
at Parasol Unit aged only 22, and is now at Hannah Barry Gallery with his latest video installation, Feather That Boa An Email.

In a darkened cinema space in the gallery’s Bond Street branch, Cash Davidson screens 24 of his YouTube mash ups – short films in which he’s taken video footage freely available on the site then cut it, looped it, stretched it, jammed it, married it to a completely different soundtrack and generally riffed with it before feeding it back into
the site via his own channel.

These shorts constitute a 120 minute looping installation that chews up popular culture in order to present is anew. He’ll take a short clip from a movie and repeat it
so many times that you become familiar with every slight movement of an actors face, every action and reaction within a few seconds of footage that would otherwise have
flown by. YouTube confessionals become material for a remix, giving their wannabe stars another shot at online fame, while established stars including Nicole Kidman,
Ali G and Andrew Sachs all become puppets for Cash Davidson’s remodeling process.

It’s not always comfortable to watch as the artist’s editing techniques tend towards being quite jarring and violent – epileptics should definitely approach with caution.
Although it’s shot through with ironic humour, Feather That Boa An Email doesn’t set out to make you happy but to take you on a surreal, seemingly unstable
psychological trip into this artist’s version of reality.

Laura Bushell
Nathan Cash Davidson’ YouTube channel can be viewed here: www.youtube.com/
www.hannahbarry.com