THE GLUTTONS is an unsettling time-capsule of our current art discourse.

Visually owing a creative debt to the medieval painter Hieronymus Bosch, Roberto Cambi re-interprets the archetype of the vicious circle – the ouroboros or snake biting its own tail – to reflect on the impasse plaguing the art world.
Art as an urban elitist activity is not reaching out to people beyond its usual circles.
Art is devouring itself.

On the one hand the artistic community has become desperately self-obsessed.
The creative process has turned into merely a PR exercise with artists, curators and galleries devoting much of their own time and resources to promote themselves to their peers.
Increasingly it is a world which eats its offspring too. Vibrant newcomers are swallowed by powerful galleries and spat out as money-makers and celebrities. Their voice is no longer heard.

On the other hand the public is no better.
Blockbuster exhibitions attract hordes of visitors who are more interested in being part of the circuit of culture than engaging with the art on show. The fear of being left out.
At times they cannot even see the exhibits because of the sheer number of people in confined spaces.
They blindly gobble up as much as they can and move onto the next big event.

THE GLUTTONS, whichever group they come to represent in our mind, are like locusts. They leave a barren landscape behind.