Though it appears to us in various stages and shades of decay, a sagging, peeling vestige of modular Eastern Bloc design, the structure pictured is in fact active and alive, home to 75 school children. Gerrard has manipulated the image, evacuating the surrounding space of its real life populations: buildings, bushes, livestock, children on swings. Cuban School seems to exist in utter isolation and silence, aside from the singular testament to life that the artist has preserved: a lone “actor” who enters the scene twice daily, once at dawn and once at dusk, and flips a light switch, imbuing the space with life and illuminating the darkness.

Cuban School (Community, 5th of October) 2010
Simon Preston Gallery
November 4 – December 19, 2010