Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery, Shrewsbury 12 January – 2 March
Reviewed by: Richard Noyce
Over the past decade, Russian artist-cum-anthropologist Vladimir Arkhipov has been compiling his Museum of Self-Made Things – a collection of handmade and improvised objects made by other people. His project exists within the context of post-Soviet Russia where the tradition of making the best of limited resources within a totalitarian system is now threatened by consumerism. Extending his collection beyond Russia for the first time, in autumn 2001 Arkhipov explored urban and rural environments in the West Midlands, meeting local people and borrowing their DIY creations to create 'Post Folk Archive'.
Arkhipov's process of collecting and exhibiting ingenious objects made in response to a particular everyday need provokes many questions regarding the nature of creativity and the cultural imperatives that enshrine objects as 'art'. On the one hand these inventions could be called unsophisticated, lacking the design and finish associated with product design; yet they could also be seen as highly sophisticated, being exact in their manufacture and answering a problem by the simplest means with whatever materials come to hand. For example, a fully functioning astronomical telescope is made from scrap metal; a yeast paddle is constructed from a plastic container lid and steel pipe, and a basketball hoop is fashioned from a sheep-lick container and scrap hardboard – all created by 'non-artists' because there was a need for them. The process by which Arkhipov selects and presents this collection shifts the objects into an unexpected context. There are echoes of Arte Povera, of Fluxus, and of Folk Art, even of Heath-Robinson. While the underlying principles and philosophy are deeply considered, the real joy in the exhibition comes from the connections viewers can make for themselves.
Writer detail:
RICHARD NOYCE
is a writer and artist living in mid-Wales.
richard.noyce@virgin.net |
www.artwriter.co.uk
Venue detail:
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