|
The Cardboard
Pleasuredrome of Infinite Possibilities
In the week that
uber art collector Mr C slagged off "antiseptic gallery spaces"
where the work "floats in pristine arctic isolation"1
Transition hosts Temporary Fiction where six artists have
definitely messed up the white cube aesthetic very nicely thank
you.
The walls of the gallery have been completely covered in brown cardboard
box remnants which have been cut up and into sometimes with cute
little stars sometimes with macho slashes. It's like being
back in primary school in the arts class. Nothing remains
of the white walls. A entire universe of possibilities remains.
Here and there are discs of coloured felt reminisences of the pure
joy of cutting and sticking. There is a hospitality at play
here firstly between the six artists - no one is deemed as more
significant than the other - as if by some archaic art by committee
decision all decided to help each other and make a story - a universe
- a vibe rather than saying look at me look at me. Each is a part
of the whole, each reflects the other, from Danny Rolph's large
scale coloured Makrolon plastic paintings, a cross between
abstract expressionism and Changing Rooms, to David Burrow's large
photo of exuberantly coloured explosions looking like the left overs
from a five year old's party a space of infinite possibilities becomes
apparent. Elswhere there are playful touches such as Peter
Lamb's funny cardboard bunny face tacked over the portrait of Goya's
Duke of Wellington, hovering between "nostalgia, homage and
defacement". Elsewhere we have shiny metallic cut outs
of Princess Di in silhouette which would not look out of place
in Claire's accessories. This is work not made from the dry
as an old stick aesthetic currently stalking dry as an old stick
institutions and galleries - this is arsey, freindly ricky-ticky
irrelevant work which invites rather than excludes.
1: Charles Saatchi quoted in Time Out, Oct
1-8 2003
Alex Michon
|
|
