INDEPENDENT CURATORIAL PROJECTS :-
WRITING :-
| SHORT TEXTS |
Alicia Paz The RCA graduation show is a jumbled, crowded space that resembles an art fair more than a white cube. So it is rare that an artist can draw you close, push you backwards to view from a distance before tempting you to step back in again. Paz's chosen motif of a single tree set against a coloured ground is reminiscent of mural traditions such as the Tree of Jesse, Pompei's domestic wall decorations or the Mexican temple's Paradise of Tlaloc. The paintings work on several levels, often literally. At back is a thin wash, animated by drips and splodges. Each trees is painted more thickly and pushed near to the front of the picture pane. On one branch grow leaves collaged from botanical books, some painted and some stencilled on. Within this narrow world, reminiscent of Chinoiserie wallpapers, creatures move amongst foliage. The eye flits around the shallow space with the same movement as the trembling leaves or hopping birds. Christmas baubles dangle amongst the cobwebs. Three beautiful witches flutter their eyes at a skull in the branches. But despite the jauntiness, these eco-systems are under stress. One tree seems only held together by nailed planks of wood. Two black sheep gaze sorrowfully up from behind a fence. Another tree whispers conspiratorially to a sketchy snowman. A third seems to be woven out of bright wool – which is unravelling. The three sisters of the coven stare sadly as the cartoon birds tug at the threads for their nests. Paz is an artist with a body of consistently interesting work behind her. Her incorporation of detail and references from high and popular culture ensures that the longer you look, the more you will see. On one level a swim in the pleasure of mark and colour, and on another level full of narrative incident. Text commissioned for AXIS webs's MAstars - Selected MA graduates 2008 |
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South of the River Maurice Citron The sculptures of Maurice Citron have charm. In Ladders in my tights (Do you want to climb them?) nasty tan tights are sewn, shaped and stretched over the rims of three old bicycle wheels, balanced on edge and seemingly poised to roll away. Bulbous with sand, the resultant seedy sculptures suggest a flabby crotch, flaccid penis or droopy balls, though a turn of the wheel is all that is needed to up-end the situation and create an erect phallus. Despite the surrealist overtones, these sculptures are more humorous than disturbing. An untitled piece, made from sections of a found child's bike with cheery yellow paintwork, looks like a tragic small animal that has rolled as far as it can and then expired. The front fork has been reconfigured - it's wheels bolted onto the outside rather than the inside. The hollow metal tubes of the bike frame remind us of our own 'plumbing' - a liquid oozes through them, leaking out in a variety of suggestive shapes. Happily for us the dripping liquids or faeces are safely contained by the neon yellow lycra. Modes of transport are a recurring theme. Like the bicycle in Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman, they may have their own secret agendas. In Citron's Wide Load Reversing a saddle is wedged onto the grubby frame of a shopping trolley. The whole is enveloped and expanded by a framework of stretched netting, reminiscent of one of those 3-D representations of a doughnut-shaped universe, or the magnetic field of the Earth. A fitting visualisation of the mysterious energy of everyday objects. Text commissioned for AXIS webs's MAstars - Selected MA graduates 2009 |
 Wide Load Reversing Rods, lycra, saddle, shopping trolley, 2009 350x250x150cm |
Other texts by Indra Khanna are on the pages How Do You Want Me? and Terra Incognita All texts © Indra Khanna |