Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
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Neal Rock, ‘RC/23’, pigmented silicon and mixed media, 530x200x48cm installed, 2003.
(central element 230x200x48cm)
f a projects, London
28 November – 17 January
Reviewed by: John Deller
The last time I saw Neal Rock's work it was canvas-based with an immediate reference to the painting tradition and possessed more overtly decorative and commercial aspects. The latter, very often, is an inevitability that many emerging artists are unable to avoid. His first solo show is a bold and confident break from his previous work. The new work, entitled Work from the Polari Range, although still heavily influenced by painterly gestures and Baroque decoration, has literally grown beyond the canvas frame and spread organically throughout the gallery space.
Using candy-coloured, pigmented silicon squeezed from piping bags, Neal has responded directly to the architecture of the space. Large, blooming forms appear to be growing from within the very fabric of the building, each containing its own fair share of beauty and repulsion. The viewer, initially attracted by the sexy efflorescence is, on closer inspection, repelled by the sickly, fleshy mycelium mounds that protrude from the walls. The three-dimensional forms, existing somewhere within the genres of painting and sculpture, present us with images of excess and decay; at once referring to the frilly kitsch of cake decoration, resplendent with gaudy plastic flowers yet, quite disturbingly, offset by the aftermath of excreta.
The title, being part of an ever-changing covert language developed within the gay scene during the early twentieth century, reflects a continuous metamorphosis of meaning, a shift in perspective between the visual and the linguistic. This shift is simultaneously commenting upon constantly changing attitudes within contemporary society to a culture that, until relatively recently, had been forced underground.
Writer detail:
John Deller is an artist.
Venue detail:
f a projects
1-2 Bear Gardens, LONDON SE1 9ED
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