Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
Catto Contemporary, London
10 January – 3 March
Reviewed by: Len Horsey
"Hi, I'm Johnny Knoxville from Jackass, and this is 'I'm DESPERATE...Love Me!!!"
Knoxville hasn't seen this exhibition yet – he's probably with his buddies riding the LA freeway on toilet seats, butt-naked with fireworks clenched between their ass cheeks, munching on mud and worm tortillas. When he does get here, he'll enjoy a bunch of recent Goldsmiths MA graduates displaying a cornucopia of visual angst, everyday excess, artistic ego and humorous flow.
The intention of the work is to demand enquiry into what some may consider unsavoury subject matter – the humanoids that inhabit the outer echelon of exhibitionism (Jerry Springer, Popstars, Big Brother, Art World Inc, etc).
Responding to the excesses and extraordinariness of everyday life presented in this exhibition, we are challenged to reach into our own minds and question where we stand on issues connected with popular contemporary culture.
There's Hollywood and New York; somewhere in between is 'Nowheresville'. Diann Bauer presents us with ink and acrylic images of the desperation/celebration of life in this nebulous region. In one image Impala drive by a stereotypical blonde female is driving her car, oblivious to having run down a small child or dog, as the blood spatters up the far side of her vehicle. As George Bush might say, "It's a small detail in a place far away".
Help is at hand. Therese Stowell offers us life affirmation assistance in the form of I want to believe, a poster-size image of snowy-topped mountains reflected in a resplendent lake, a serendipitous idyll for the stressed-out city-dweller; the whole image is covered in phrases for a more meaningful life. After a short time of staring, I become aware of the mountain's two-dimensional banality and the phrases of meaningless script. Saddened, I move on to Stowell's Deathscape 2002, a beautifully constructed and finished wall-based mind map. Like an elaborate board game, it takes the viewer through a myriad of death-related possibilities, revelations and information. Is immortality possible through art?
Lee Campbell's photograph, King, is of a desolate figure in a non-descript room with a crown of plastic clothes pegs; he wears a bra of some kind of plastic kitchen utensil. His face appears distorted, obscuring eye contact, offering neither passivity nor confrontation.
Barrett-Forster's Polaroid, is a freeze-framed narrative with life-size cut-outs celebrating the joys of group identity. They are exhibitionists. They are masochists. They are us. Tools of the trade – booze and a Polaroid camera, the cheap icons of a hedonistic television culture, where the ego is king, and stays forever king, trapped in the life-size cut-out. Angus Wyatt's video Posterity takes the viewer on a short transcendental journey. Whilst listening to a crisp, resolute voice-over declaring a desire to be anti-fashion, anti-controversial and, above all, relevant, we eventually observe a naked man in a Wendy House masturbating; highlighting the discord between artistic integrity and success.
Sarah Baker's sensual, larger than life cut-out takes the stance of a classical goddess. She stands adorned in posh scarves and cheap jewellery, a hyper-real statement of self-identity.
The exhibition provokes internal perplexity as I juggle and manage my prejudices on contemporary culture and art – then like a 'good' American chat show, just when I have controlled the swinging from loathing to empathy and back again – the surprise family member comes running from behind the curtain:
Hrafnkell Sigurdsson's video loop of himself naked doing a shoulder-stand peeing into his mouth, ensuring life is continual and the creative process ongoing, no matter what the fashion is.
Writer detail:
LEN HORSEY
is an artist
Venue detail:
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