The Reliance + Seventeen
Until It Makes Sense; Drawing as a Time Based Medium curated by James Brooks
3 May – 10 June
Seventeen, 17 Kingsland Road, London E2 8AA
Caroline Achaintre, Anna Barriball, Wolfgang Berkowski, James Brooks, Susan Collis, Christopher Cook, Graham Dolphin, Amande In, Des Lawrence, Jason Martin, Guillaume Pinard, Emma Torkington.
This is an exhibition of works by artists who use drawing to explore duration of time. Including the pencil frottage works by Anna Barriball, which though the fill the entirety of the page, but the flat plain is broken up by trace of the contact with the surface which the paper was pressed against. It was interesting to see Caroline Achaintre’s drawings, which made me wonder about their relationship to the woven rug works that I saw at the Showroom last year. Susan Collis work ‘The Oyster’s Our World’ which stood unassuming in its placement in the gallery space, had really classy secretive presence, with is double take, as what looks like paint splattered is in fact inlayed corals, pearls and diamonds; I need to go back and look at ‘100% Cotton’. Chris Cook’s series of framed watery drawings at the back of the gallery investigated simply the properties of the materials and the process of making repeated marks. Looking at Chris Cook’s work I was reminded of practicing letters at school getting the right form of letter and comparing the process of production of each letter to how it looked, and how it looked in comparison the last. I am definitely going back for a second look; as I don’t feel that I have done everything justice. I did want there to be more of a presence in the centre of the gallery space, but this may not have been appropriate for this exhibition. This show is only on until 10th June.
Disintegrating Hand and Other Works Alex Pollard
27 April – 18 June 2006, Reliance, 2nd Floor, 336 Old Street, London EC1V 9DR
A new space run by the same people who run the Approach. Light with conventional white walls, open plan but intimate. The exhibition was liberated free and fun. When I first went in I was struck by the wall drawing where the ruler and the pencil that drew the line were still there. Later to discover that they weren’t really. The majority of the work looks as if it has been made from drawing materials such as old rulers, rubbers and pencils, but they are bronze or plaster that has been painted to look like these objects. These objects, which aren’t what they are, make up animals and paintings, but reference other artworks in the process. Very interesting show, in a great new space.
