Edith Karlson & Dan Mitchell 'The End'

Karlson and Mitchell have made a show about The End. As we all know, The End is also an opportunity for a new beginning... The gallery is filled with giant letters spelling out THE END, while a Neanderthal figure greets the audience by threatening to throw a rock at them as they enter. His presence also transforms the gallery into a cave — the original gallery — and so introduces us to the start of human history. More sculpture is employed to create an illusion that the gallery, and indeed our western world, is on fire... Visitors are invited to meet The End — maybe their end, the end of civilisation? The end of art, the end of the audience? Our lone Neanderthal could well be the last of his kind, his race failed to keep up with the Homo sapiens, he was outpaced by technology and then died... He stands defiant in the gallery demanding we reflect on our efforts to date. Are we making our own end? Has it come to this? The insects and animals are dying off as walls threaten to separate us from our neighbours, but we’re still drinking coffee in the department store cafe, chatting with our pals as we sit and wonder if tonight's meal will be TexMex or Pan Asian... The End.

Edith Karlson (born 1983, Tallinn) lives and works in Tallinn. She has shown extensively in Estonia and internationally, including at AV17, Vilnius; Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig; Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn; Amatorska gallery, London; and Tallinn City Gallery. Karlson has collaborated on projects with artists Jass Kaselaan, Kris Lemsalu, art collective Gelitin and with British artist Sarah Lucas. Her works are often produced with robust materials and feature people and animals as the main protagonists.
Dan Mitchell (born 1966, London) lives and works in London. He is the founder of DEATH LOLZ, publisher of Hard Mag, co-founder of the Artist Self-Publishing Fair (ASP) and Poster Studio (1994–1997). Mitchell’s works have been exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, including at Jenny’s, LA; Svetlana, NYC; Gagosian, London; Oracle, Berlin; Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn; Luma Westbau, Zurich. His work often features images collaged and culled from magazines and the internet.