Robert Montgomery: Salvage Paradise - Paris

There is a profoundly strong moment in the works of Robert Montgomery. The artist stages large parts of his work in the public space. This idea of radical publicity perhaps finds its most outspoken expression in his altering of billboard advertising spaces. From December 4 to January 29, the Scottish-born, London-based artist who stands out by bringing a poetic voice to the discourse of text art, presents the vitality and richness of his work at Danysz Gallery - Paris.

Transcending the confines of contemporary cities with messages of hope, his works speak to the post-modern anxiety. They are the closest you will get to soul searching while on the run; “This is the best way we have found to live…,” stays on your mind. In a moment you will have decks, team meetings, an anxiety over someone that should DM you back. Presently you have yourself. As if stemming from a long-forgotten place of contemplation, like a ghostly whisper rooted in ancestral times, the artist’s poems subvert your well-known present.

They are provocative—they call to action. And then they’re suddenly gone. Robert Montgomery’s messages have a function of “poetic subjects.” The French philosopher Guy Debord described the need for the construction of situations and their transformation into a superior passional quality as a “methodical intervention based on the complex factors of two components in perpetual interaction: the material environment of life and the comportments which it gives rise to and which radically transform it.”

The artist has chosen public installations to create a dialogue with the viewer in a setting that is conventionally imposing and monological. This, however, is not an attempt for a post-Duchampian irony. Montgomery’s aim is to rewaken spirituality that is genuine and tends to engage with society and politics.

Verse after verse of translucent and intuitive poetry, Montgomery invites us to reflect on ways to salvage paradise, rebuilding it from wreckage and going back to a natural sense of peace through an awe-inspiring melancholic yet hopeful lyricism. 

“I think melancholy is really interesting, because it is the creation of beauty from sadness… It's only when we begin to destroy the planet that we realize we were living in paradise.”

—Robert Montgomery

For Salvage Paradise, the artist who works in a conceptual post-Situationist tradition, recreates the wealth and complexity of his universe with light installations, paintings, woodcuts, watercolors, photographs of his fire poems (works with fire as a nod to Celtic tradition) and digital works.

"In his work Robert Montgomery proves why and how poetry is of the utmost importance today, maybe more than ever. Poetry helps us link our inner world and dreams, terrors, desires… to the world around us. Poetry is sharing our inner world with the world. This is the magic of Robert Montgomery’s art."
—Barbara Polla, Writer & Art Curator