Darren Banks

“This is a sign” is a prefab replica of the lighthouse sign featured in the 1962 version of the 'Day of the triffids'. Originally commission for Soothsayer at Serria Metro (an old lighthouse building) “This is a sign” sat anonymously within the space, its cinematic reference being easily overlooked, much in the same vain as its significant message does within the film. “This is a sign” is a key to the saving of the planet earth, the conclusion of a puzzle, which is staring the protagonist straight in the eye. Darren Banks incorporates found and made film footage into sculpture and installation to explore his ideas about horror, the domestic, science fiction, defunct technologies, creation, and the unknown. He conflates high and low culture exploring his own perception of sculpture and its relation to film and memory. By appropriating iconic images of sculpture through the history of film and re-presenting them as his own work, Banks’ restructures filmic images and adds to his existing sculptural language. He establishes a dialogical relationship with these previous films through appropriation and montage. His folding of the past into the present is a strong example of how some contemporary artists are building upon the legacy of horror and creating new artistic narratives with the genre.