New Ben Rivers show, Phantom of a Libertine, to open at Kate MacGarry gallery

Artist Ben Rivers’ work has most recently focussed on hermetic individuals living beyond the reaches of ‘normal’ life (see Origin of the Species, 2008). But the Somerset-born artist’s new exhibition, which opens this Friday at the Kate MacGarry Gallery, revisits his earlier investigations into deserted space. Featuring a new 10 minute, 16mm film, as well as a series of black and white photographs, the artist explores the life of one man (a friend of Rivers’), via the “animistic artefacts” left in his empty flat a year after his death.

“Neither morbid nor sentimental,” MacGarry’s press release reads, “Rivers’ narrative flickers into view then disperses, as thick and apace as the clours of dust that fill the atmosphere of the empty flat.”

Ben Rivers’ Phantoms of a Libertine opens April 21 until May 26.