Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, Scunthorpe
13 March – 26 June
Reviewed by: Sarah Watson
At first glance around 20-21's courtyard you could be forgiven for thinking that a tidal wave had washed up a collection of flotsam and jetsam. The objects give the appearance of being 'found' rather than constructed, their previous histories still engraved on their surfaces; markings from a different story being hinted at.
Some pieces beg to be touched, surfaces smoothed by the elements juxtaposed with surfaces roughened and deteriorated. These gatherings of materials invite the viewer to consider their new stories. Suggestions are made of new myths. Nick Bartrum's Ceremony holds a wooden circular shape edged with copper on top of a wagon, portentous of something to come. There's Oxygen and Hydrogen and Oxygen and Hydrogen by Jamie Frost throws rusted twisted steel up in the air with polished stone delicately poised between the hardened reddened fronds, suggesting the defiance of gravity. Each artist cites a different beginning to their work. Bartrum has a love of medieval sculpture and architecture and equally admires the aesthetic beauty of abandoned farm machinery reclaimed by nature. Frost is drawn to objects with a figurative association and feels directly linked to its past life. Both engender a strong sense of history, space and time.
Inside the centre, found objects are displayed as museum exhibits, bulky maquettes alluding to structures of architecture but paired down to their simplest form and shape. Drawings show an exploration of those elements that interest them.
Two separate artists but a common bond in borrowing, reinventing materials and suggesting stories. Yet, in case we get carried away, the last comment should be borrowed from Bartrum who describes one piece as a "simple structure with the emphasis being on composition, surface and shape. Nothing more, nothing less". Perhaps this is what comes across most strongly from both artists: a love of materials and what can be achieved – anything else, well that's up to the viewer to decide.
Writer detail:
Sarah Watson
Venue detail:
20-21 Visual Arts Centre
St. Johns Church, Church Square, Scunthorpe DN15 6TB
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