return to worldwidereview.com,
the home of critical reviews
From: Eva Category: Exhibitions Date: 18 October 2006 Time: 01:08 PM Review: An impressive effort has gone into the organisation and execution of this exhibition – artists and friends have worked hard to raise the money and get the place ready for the public. Illuminate Productions is the organisers’ collective name and this is the third in a series of five planned exhibitions. The venue is a rotting warehouse near Tate Modern that has been cleared especially. Thirteen artists have responded to the space and to the theme of ’natural elements – the chemical and physical change of matter’. The result is a varied and variable exhibition with considered approaches to the space and to the show’s theme. The first piece you see on entering is a stainless steel globe by Angela Conner. It wobbles if you brush the layers from which it’s composed, like flaps of a curvy giant Venetian blind that yield glimpses of a resin core. It works in a formalist way in stark contrast to the grungy texture of the place. Thomas Nicolai has created a large and very solid octagonal construction out of steel, glass and water. The mind boggles at the requisite effort for constructing the weighty structure, relative to the two month run of the exhibition and the absence of a team of paid technicians. In the context of this warehouse it looks like an object that could have been left behind from the days when London Underground trains were made here. The water inside the octagonal corridor has stagnated and reacted to the steel to become murky and greenish. The decay of formalist aesthetics? Maybe, or it could be a Superman’s recharging unit. Anya Gallaccio has provided a beautiful work made up of fine glass beads and light. Entitled ‘Chasing Rainbows’ it shimmers as you walk past creating an irresistible urge to leave your tracks in its sandy wake, or at least to leave your fingerprint on it’s edge [some naughty people have yielded to the urge, much to the chagrin of the organisers who need to comb through the whole installation when this happens to restore its pristine shimmer]. Massimo Bartolini has collaborated with two artists who he contacted through an advert placed in AN magazine. They have both responded through paint to the same image within the ‘natural elements’ brief for the exhibition. Bartolini has placed a long canvas between the wall partitioning two small exhibition rooms. Julia Everett and Audrey Hussey have painted either side independently, seemingly unaware of the other’s contribution. The resulting work is curious, the nature of the space makes it look like a schizophrenic squatter has allowed both his personalities free reign. Bartolini’s idea has potential and the contributing artists have generously entered into the spirit of it, but the whole isn’t quite there yet. The possibilities for irony confused me as the painting(s) themselves are neither better nor worse than many I’ve seen at the Frieze art fair. Mileece has made an immersive dark installation where rubbing plants makes interesting sounds. Sensors capture the plant noises in a room with peat underfoot and pin pricks of neon light emerging from soft-looking walls. Caroline Jones presents large abstract paintings whose materials are literally revealing. Over a traditional wooden stretcher is pulled a resin based transparent support. Two expressionistic surges of colour and paint stream up to the top left corner, in blue, green and white. Strong lighting throws the shadow of these marks onto the back wall. Jones is working in a tradition that references De Kooning and Twombly while breaking down the gesture and structure to make it more concentrated and context sensitive. David Cotterrrell has attempted to sell a rectangle of space on the river Thames by the Millenium bridge. A picket fence bobs up and down delineating the area up for grabs, with a Daniel Cobb estate agent sign further marking the spot. This we know because Cotterrell presents a video in the exhibition of his ‘staked-out’ bit of river. Daniel Cobb deals with the posher properties in the Kennington area, so I’ve been a bit shy about calling to enquire as to the price of Cotterrell’s bit of Thames, but I'd be interested in requesting a viewing even if it does end up being out of my league. Upstairs Andy Harper’s dark painted globe looks perfect in the decaying space around it. His room is in the listed part of the building and the history of the space adds to the weird suggestive and complex shapes he paints on his globe. Other artists and their work comprise: Julius Popp’s BIT.FLOW prototype using clever technology that’s nice to look at - coloured water through tygon tubes, mapped version on screen and information relaying to a system in Germany; Michael Sailstorfer with a microphone in his mouth; Kevin O’Brien’s paintings with lots of turpentine drips ‘Remainders and Traces’; and Neil Stewart’s videos of creepy ‘fake’ landscapes with enigmatic rocks in them like versions of that rock in 2001 Space Odyssey; Keith Bowler’s mostly dark room with a concentrated area of Sunlight/Moonlight which is nice to be in. There’s also a video that chronicles the making of the show. Only after seeing the skip loads of rubbish that were shifted and the welding/electrical work that needed to be carried out to make the place safe, can you fully appreciate the phenomenal effort that was needed to make this exhibition happen.