Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Mid Pennine Gallery, Burnley 3 November – 22 December
Reviewed by: Martin Vincent
Take a brick, some bathroom plugholes and a few light bulbs and you can make a nice table lamp. One of the dangers facing designer Jason Taylor is that it's quite tempting to rip him off and make your own versions of his work. His other lights utilise steamers, graters, builders' hods and breezeblocks. Unlike some experimental design, you can imagine much of Taylor's work in many homes, though his rather threatening table with wood saws for legs would demand a very particular setting.
The majority of the seven designers in this show make new things from existing manufactured objects, often with witty intent. Sarah Crawford's accessories make colourful use of plastic hardware store items, thoughtfully listed, her Market bag is made from "pleated shower curtain, Ikea drawer liner, nylon and dyed nylon cable ties, nylon and dyed nylon washers, PVC tubing". Acclaimed iconoclastic designer Ralf Ball presents an inverted table with saucers attached to the legs, drolly titled T.4.4., while Clerk Clerkin's very acceptable bathroom cabinet is a re-appraised tool-box.
Laura Potter makes her own everyday objects – paper clips, kirby grips and credit cards rendered in precious metal and rings described as 'Poloesque' and not just because they cost a mint. This is jewellery that's intended to question the values we attribute to desirable things, displayed alongside the original objects, just in case you didn't get the point.
Repeated mention is made in the exhibition of the legacy of Marcel Duchamp and there's a debate to be had here. Placing a urinal in an art gallery is a very particular act; transforming a cheese grater into a table lamp really belongs to another category of thought. A Duchampian readymade is not an object waiting to be turned into some other useful item; it's already transformed, into art, by the act of selection. I enjoyed this show but I'm not sure the way Duchamp is cited adds weight to the works on display here and it confuses his intent.
Freddie Robins seems to sidestep these debates. Her extended knitted garment Headlong is handmade and practically unwearable – although the glove-like toes are inviting – stretched out across its low plinth like a winter warmer for mutated humanity. Gitta Gschwendtner seems most engaged with the agenda of the objects she's dealing with. Not readymades at all, her drawer units and coffee tables are of simple modern construction. What raises their status is the elastic ties by which their segments are connected – allowing the user to shove a magazine or some other object in between them, a storage solution that destabilises the structure both physically and conceptually. Her work is designed not just for ironic contemplation, but for robust interaction.
Writer detail:
MARTIN VINCENT
is an artist.
Venue detail:
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