David Garner’s new powerful and challenging exhibition entitled “Whatever they say I am, that’s what I’m not” debut in January at the Cynon Valley Museum & Gallery, Aberdare, Wales. The exhibition showcases a series of sculptural installations that explores Western assumptions and attitudes towards Islam and the demonisation of Muslims. In a wry comment on War, be it the war on terror or the ongoing war in Iraq, David Garner uses a real soldier’s helmet and actual dried Middle Eastern poppies in his work ‘Poppycock’.

Another piece titled ‘Unwanted Decoration’ incorporates an original Iraq medal purchased on Ebay which illustrates British soldiers disillusionment with the confl ict. David Garners interpretation of the old American “Jim Crow” racist segregation laws are evoked using a stuffed crow covered in excrement in a birdcage with a stuffed dove sitting on top. Here Garner is drawing parallels between the dehumanising racism against blacks and some of the current islamaphobic attitudes towards Muslims.

Another piece, Typecast, features an open dictionary with groups of nails hammered into the pages leaving only the words, ‘Muslim’ and ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ on view in a comment on how Muslim identity has been besieged and how the ‘war on terror’ has undermined the civil rights and basic liberties of us all.

The most striking, and possibly most controversial piece in the exhibition, is an accurate life size replica of the sign on the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp, and its motto Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Brings Freedom). The intention of the artist here is to evoke the uneasy feeling that racism, in all its guises, can reoccur at any time and to remind us of the trajectory and essence of racism and to insist always on the possibility of resistance.

John Molyneux, art critic and curator said: “I believe David Garner to be one of the most important and challenging artists working in Britain today. His works take on subjects- like asylum seeking and Islamophobia – which others shy away from, and tackles them with an intensity and artistic power that is uniquely his own. This is art that matters.’

A publication ‘From Ebbw Vale to the Muslim Veil’ has been released which coincides with the exhibition and includes a forward by Salma Yaqoob, vice-chair of Respect and a Birmingham City Councillor together with an essay by John Molyneux, art critic and curator.

Very much a political artist, David Garner who was born in Ebbw Vale in 1958 and now lives in Argoed, Gwent has in the past has dealt with subjects like asylum seeking and the plight of South Wales’ mining communities. His previous works have been shown throughout the UK and it is expected that “Whatever they say I am, that’s what I’m not” will be exhibited at various other locations in the UK in the near future.

Exhibiting at Cynon Valley Museum & Gallery in Wales until 15th March 2008.