From: Alex Michon
Category: Exhibitions
Date: 05 October 2003
THE CARDBOARD PLEASUREDROME OF INFINITE POSSIBILITIES
Temporary Fiction 3rd Oct-3rd Nov 2003 at Transition 110a Lauriston Road Hackney London E9 7HA David Burrows, Deodre King, Peter Lamb, Hew Locke Neal Rock, Danny Rolph
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, 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 portrtait 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.
1Charles Saatchi quoted in Time Out, Oct 1-8 2003
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