Early One Morning
Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
July 6 – September 8, 2002
Late One Afternoon
It was very late indeed, almost the end of my time in Britain. Successfully extricating myself from family commitments, I rushed to see some of London's hot happenings, past and present. Early One Morning, a quirky exhibition of five young artists at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, was steeped in British sculptural tradition, taking its name from a 1962 Anthony Caro sculpture.
That seminal work, a series of red abstract constructions, and other works by Caro's students at St. Martin's College of Art defined an important movement in British sculptural history. Whitechapel Art Gallery exhibited many of these students in their 1965 show The New Generation.
Now, a new New Generation emerges — all mid-90s art school graduates using abstraction as a start, not a finish. They are interested in form and color and scale, but they've infused form, color, and scale with a pop cultural sensibility. Glasgow-based Jim Lambie, whose work can be seen in the Bay Area at Jack Hanley Gallery, told an interviewer, "I decided to make work with materials that I was interacting with a lot on a day-to-day basis — cigarettes, sticky tape,... record decks,... also records. Whenever I present a piece, I hope that it's something anyone can connect with and recognize — that there's an inroad to the work."
Lambie's use of street materials does allow access to the work, in pedestrian ways as well as sublime. In ZOBOP (2002), viewers' connection to the work is physical — you literally walk onto his psychedelic gold, silver, black, and white vinyl tape floor patterns — into a heady visual vortex that leaves you off balance. With the work of Gary Webb, viewers plug in through auditory channels as well as visual. His installations combine Plexiglas, wood, and metal forms in various sizes and arrangements. The contradiction of making organic arrangements out of rigid manufactured elements creates a disconnect often added to (or broken down by) an incongruous sound element.
Also making the most of formal materials with cultural cachet is Shahin Afrassiabi, who believes "the arrangement, in the end, is the most important thing. I have found a way of working that makes me look at the shape of the world, the structure of it, the arrangements in it." He looks to make sense of his environment, and we of his. His works use the building blocks of construction. These are perhaps the most important scuptural objects in our world, for it is in these simple construction materials that we find shelter — shelter from any number of outside forces. Afrassiabi rearranges the elements — a two-by-four here, a paint can there — stripping his sculptural installations down to essentials and leaving the viewer to do the building.
Culturally savvy and multidisciplinary, these young artists do not restrict themselves to purely formal devices, thereby creating environments that are rich in social constructs and connotations. Eva Rothschild plays with materialism and spirituality in witty arrangements such as Nun, Hothouse and Midnight (both works 2002). With Collars and Woodseers (2002), Claire Barclay presents an absorbing netherworld of seductive yet structural investigations into the meanings of commodity and craft.
While their works are perhaps not the start of a new movement, all five artists in Early One Morning relish materiality and exude intelligence about the world that we all inhabit. I for one look forward to seeing the work of these exciting artists as they continue to evolve, and as late afternoon encroaches on the development of their careers.
Whitechapel Art Gallery is located on Whitechapel High Street in London, England. For more information call 020-7522-7880 or visit http://www.whitechapel.org.
July 6 – September 8, 2002
Late One Afternoon
It was very late indeed, almost the end of my time in Britain. Successfully extricating myself from family commitments, I rushed to see some of London's hot happenings, past and present. Early One Morning, a quirky exhibition of five young artists at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, was steeped in British sculptural tradition, taking its name from a 1962 Anthony Caro sculpture.
That seminal work, a series of red abstract constructions, and other works by Caro's students at St. Martin's College of Art defined an important movement in British sculptural history. Whitechapel Art Gallery exhibited many of these students in their 1965 show The New Generation.
Now, a new New Generation emerges — all mid-90s art school graduates using abstraction as a start, not a finish. They are interested in form and color and scale, but they've infused form, color, and scale with a pop cultural sensibility. Glasgow-based Jim Lambie, whose work can be seen in the Bay Area at Jack Hanley Gallery, told an interviewer, "I decided to make work with materials that I was interacting with a lot on a day-to-day basis — cigarettes, sticky tape,... record decks,... also records. Whenever I present a piece, I hope that it's something anyone can connect with and recognize — that there's an inroad to the work."
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Lambie's use of street materials does allow access to the work, in pedestrian ways as well as sublime. In ZOBOP (2002), viewers' connection to the work is physical — you literally walk onto his psychedelic gold, silver, black, and white vinyl tape floor patterns — into a heady visual vortex that leaves you off balance. With the work of Gary Webb, viewers plug in through auditory channels as well as visual. His installations combine Plexiglas, wood, and metal forms in various sizes and arrangements. The contradiction of making organic arrangements out of rigid manufactured elements creates a disconnect often added to (or broken down by) an incongruous sound element.
Also making the most of formal materials with cultural cachet is Shahin Afrassiabi, who believes "the arrangement, in the end, is the most important thing. I have found a way of working that makes me look at the shape of the world, the structure of it, the arrangements in it." He looks to make sense of his environment, and we of his. His works use the building blocks of construction. These are perhaps the most important scuptural objects in our world, for it is in these simple construction materials that we find shelter — shelter from any number of outside forces. Afrassiabi rearranges the elements — a two-by-four here, a paint can there — stripping his sculptural installations down to essentials and leaving the viewer to do the building.
|
Culturally savvy and multidisciplinary, these young artists do not restrict themselves to purely formal devices, thereby creating environments that are rich in social constructs and connotations. Eva Rothschild plays with materialism and spirituality in witty arrangements such as Nun, Hothouse and Midnight (both works 2002). With Collars and Woodseers (2002), Claire Barclay presents an absorbing netherworld of seductive yet structural investigations into the meanings of commodity and craft.
While their works are perhaps not the start of a new movement, all five artists in Early One Morning relish materiality and exude intelligence about the world that we all inhabit. I for one look forward to seeing the work of these exciting artists as they continue to evolve, and as late afternoon encroaches on the development of their careers.
Whitechapel Art Gallery is located on Whitechapel High Street in London, England. For more information call 020-7522-7880 or visit http://www.whitechapel.org.
