On what there is

Dan Mort, ‘Breakfast in the Expanded Field’, MDF, foam core, paint, cardboard, veneer, plastic, metal, 2005.

REVIEW

Spectacle Gallery, Birmingham
10-24 July

Reviewed by: Dave Freak

Somewhat off the beaten track on a small Ladywood industrial estate, an artist-led studio/gallery space formerly called the Cockpit, but recently renamed to recall the optical factory’s past, re-launches itself with a group exhibition that borrows its title (if little else) from the American philosopher and ontologist Willard Van Orman Quine’s 1948 paper on universals, ‘On What There Is’.

Saam Farahmand’s subversion of the language of film and editing involves a high level of technical skill. His re-appropriation of a newscast featuring Bush and Blair (presumably) discussing the ongoing war against terrorism is both a technically brilliant piece of editing and a mockery of advancing technology, as Farahmand opts for straightforward splicing over graphic morphing tricks to create juddering heads that recall 1980s VJ Max Headroom. Cutting up Bush and Blair’s speeches, the artist creates a diplomatic disaster as the two world leaders trade insults: “You fucking cocksucker”, “You are a cunt”, “Your mother sucks horses’ willies”, and so on, stitching together parts of words to form the obscenities; shocking, unexpected and quite frankly hysterical!

Farahmand’s second video contribution is arguably just as controversial. Through a small hole in a sheet of card, what initially appears to be a puppet face pokes its head from the darkness to sing a simple, repetitive love song: Open Up Your Heart. However, it’s no child’s toy, but actually a penis with stick-on eyes, being squeezed and man-handled in time with the song. Like some twisted Puppetry Of The Penis-styled karaoke, it’s a novelty piece that underlines a very male obsession.

Sadly, such extreme works, both of which rely on one simple trick each for their impact, overshadow the remainder of the exhibition. On leaving, it’s easy to ignore Paul Cordwell’s lumps of paint – swirls of pure colour squeezed onto the walls and left like chewed out chewing gum, Dan Mort’s intricate sculptural centrepiece, and even Nick Jordan’s calm, poetic film, the strongest contribution to the show.

INTERFACE

REVIEW

On what there is

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