Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
The Old Postal Museum, Bath
25 May – 9 June
Reviewed by: Edward Adam
Curated by artist Mariele Neudecker for Bath Fringe Arts, the works in ‘Identity’ are hosted in the former Old Postal Museum and now temporary home to the Bath-based artists’ initiative South Central.
Neudecker has skilfully employed the building's empty rooms and the detritus left behind in them to pull the artworks directly into the weave of the labyrinthine space, creating new resonances between the exhibited works and the identity of the vacated building. In Caitlin Griffiths’ The Book of Caitlin, the use of a left-behind office filing cabinet as a plinth reiterates the archival nature of the book, which asks other women called Caitlin to classify themselves with a one word description rather than by their names. Similarly, Vera Boele-Keimer’s photographic work Shelf Life, which consists of simple graphic images of stacked medical records, placed within a room of empty shelves refers succinctly to the buildings past, and the passing of time as well as the passing away of the individuals whose documents she has captured.
Identity is a very visceral exhibition and one that explicitly explores the relationship between physicality and sense of self. Paul Emmanuel’s tapei psycho, a video documentation of a performance work, shows the paint-smeared artist in conversation with a consultant psychologist as he gargles with acrylic paint. The result is both compelling and stomach turning, raising questions about the mythology of the painted surface and the tortured artist.
Lorna Brunstein’s poignant and affecting video installation From Poole to Treblinka investigates her identity both as a cancer survivor and a second-generation holocaust survivor. This is a very personal work and one that examines how we form our sense of self, be it through our physicality, gender or family history.
A personal highlight was Angel Stripe’s two-monitor video installation Meowmix. On one monitor we view the artist’s face, painted to look like a cat and on the second monitor located in an adjoining room there is a caged kitten. The sound from the two video works have been exchanged, so that the artist mews with the voice of the kitten and the kitten cries out with the artist's mimicked meow. The work is strangely emotive, very amusing, knowing and thought provoking, characteristics that sum up this bold and artfully curated show.
Writer detail:
Edward Adam
Venue detail:
Bath Fringe Visual Arts
103 Walcot Street, Bath BA1 5BW
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