by Stephanie Douet
As an artist, some exhibitions leave you with two feelings: one is when you see a piece that you could have made yourself, had you pursued that idea, used that material, been more careful/careless or just plain persistent; the other is that you can’t wait to get back to your own studio to bring the idea/material/persistence to your own work. I was delighted to get both these feelings as I walked around Collyer Bristow Gallery.
The idea for the show had been prompted by the curators’ conversations with artist Matt Houlding about what happens when people are removed from architecture, what fantastical imaginings become possible?
Mark Selby Playstation 3
The gallery is housed in a large Georgian terrace house near Gray’s Inn, and is home to the law firm Collyer Bristow. Artwork is hung in various rooms within the working space of the practice, and this lends itself well to the theme of the exhibition, refreshing your awareness of displaying work within the physical constraints of a working environment. James Smith’s photographs of surly grey industrial relics brood over formica meeting tables like oblique memento mori. Ben Cove’s sharply made yet dreamily painted ‘Revisitor’ hovers between body and window system, while Kiera Bennett’s dashing and haptic paintings draw on Impressionist and Constructivist sources.
Matthew Houlding’s ‘Poolside’ just needs a shove to push it into being a useful piece of architecture. It is the essence of a larger Hockneyesque scene, abridged to its elements here of colour, axis and interior detail. It evokes Caulfield’s use of apparent and potential non-visible space with intersecting planes, jolly palate and signs of human usage.
Ruth Claxton, Landing Parrot 2009 detail
By the window, catching the light from the street, Ruth Claxton’s ravishing ‘Nests’, swirls of slender pale steel loops floating high on the wall creating delectable reflections and shadows with a concocted paradise-coloured ceramic bird perched on top of one and a banana/bird hybrid on the other like a couple of barmy Ascot hats. They gracefully insinuate themselves into the space, with shadows that swing around with the passing of daylight.
Dominating the platform leading from upper to lower space Mark Selby’s Playstation has beautifully crafted wooden ribbed cups poised on scaffolding which look as though they have some specific use you can’t actually recall.
Todd Hanson’s wall-painting covers three corners and twirls up into a skylight, picking up period architectural motifs with mud and bilge browns in swirling arabesques. I felt he was doing something I would have moved on to till I checked out his website and saw what an astounding artistic gymnast and virtuoso he is. His faultless technique supports his disruptive spatial arrangement with ingenuity, leaving you feeling as though the architecture of the building is only arbitrarily boxlike and could be explored upside-down if you felt like it.
Venue: Collyer Bristow Gallery, 4 Bedford Row, London WC1R 4TF
Dates: 6th March – 11th June
Viewing: By appointment Monday to Friday during office hours and can be arranged by calling +44 (0)20 7242 7363
www.collyerbristow.com and www.dayandgluckman.com
Artists: Kiera Bennett, Ruth Claxton, Ben Cove, Tod Hanson, Matthew Houlding, Mark Selby and Kames Smith
Curators: Day+Gluckman
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