La Viande, 3 Charlotte Road, London EC2 3DH
17 – 27 October 2007
By the time I finish this review you won’t have much time left to see Portholes to the Secrets of the Universe. (It closes on 27th October 2007). That’s a shame, as the artists have put on a strong and difficult show that demands careful attention. It’s an all-male cast: Jeremy Brann, Gabor Gyory, Michael O’Mahony, Christopher Page and Christopher Shilling. As with any group show (or any artwork shown in a circumscribed space) there is the temptation on the part of the viewer to draw the whole thing into one neat sentence, disregarding the individual artists, let alone the individual pieces. So, it’s a strong and difficult show. I feel reluctant to say anything more specific, especially about ‘the whole thing’. But, here goes.
It’s strong because each of the artists seems to be sure of what he’s doing, and is engaged in the process of developing a style and a visual language to suit that purpose. Regardless of what they’re actually saying, each has a distinctive style or voice: despite there being no indications in the gallery as such, it’s clear which works were done by the same person, even without a floorplan. It’s difficult because, aside from the evident visual pleasure of much of the work, the individual pieces are conceptually complex, drawing further away from the viewer the longer you’re with them, complicating the picture rather than resolving it.
The difficulty I had thinking through the show is, perhaps, symptomatic of the fact/possibility of the artists’ thinking being, before anything else, visual and material. You have to actually see the stuff if you want to get an idea of it.
Most of the pieces are flat and on walls. Most of them also pick up on the detritus of the material, discursive and visual world, and, rather than incorporating it directly, represent it within formal, conventional parameters. Maybe here we have the crux of the whole thing after all.
To be continued…
(I wanted to post this review provisionally, although it’s not finished, in case it might encourage someone to go and see the show before it closes. The rest of the post is still in draft form and actually talks about what things look like.)
images: (top to bottom) Christopher Shilling, Jeremy Brann, Christopher Page, Christopher Shilling, Gabor Gyory, Michael O’Mahony
Anton Viesel
Filed under: Christopher Page, Christopher Shilling, East End, Gabor Gyory, Jeremy Brann, La Viande, Michael O'Mahony, Old Street, art, central st martins, graduates, painting, review
