The Pomp of Circumstances

The Pomp of Circumstances presents a series of works that operate on the understanding that belief systems – be they philosophical, ideological or religious – are largely based on a labyrinth of accidents, mistranslations, pseudo-scientific reasoning and dogmatic entrapment.

In his first solo show at Nancy Victor, Agnew employs the tools of polemical hindsight and sceptical foresight. The drawings and etched panels present us with a variety of curious scenarios including London’s new skyscraper the Shard frozen in Friedrich’s Sea of Ice and the USA’s Pentagon imagined in the form of a Roman dodecahedron – a small hollow object found at various sites around Europe which no-one has ever definitively concluded the purpose of.

With multiple references to apocalyptic prophecies and absurd theories, the exhibition pays homage to these seemingly inconsequential components of civilization and insists that they are of paramount importance to a freethinking society.