Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
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Stuart Ross, ‘From the series My Mums Photos of Car Boot Sales and Village Fetes’, photograph, 50x60cm, 2002.
A Space, Southampton
14 March – 6 April
Reviewed by: Rosemary Shirley
'Look but don't touch', is a childhood mantra from the same parental phrase book as 'walk don't run' and 'look both ways'. In this exhibition fourteen photographers have explored the meanings held within this familiar cautionary yet tantalising instruction.
To look but not touch is the conventional behaviour of the gallery visitor. This response to the potentially priceless items on display is turned on its head in the series of work by Stuart Ross, or rather his mum, in the self explanatory series My mums photos of carboot sales and village fetes; here proud stall holders display their paraphernalia like cheerful museum exhibits. The viewer, in place of the customer feels the awkwardness of handling the goods whilst being eyed by their most recent owner.
Look but don't touch is also the enforced behaviour of the strip club patron, a restriction which fetishises the object. In Denise Wargent's photographs a lap dancer's contorted movements take on a strange new narrative when removed from the audience.
Tension between the attraction and danger of abandoned buildings is explored in Greg Davies' images of the decaying 1930s architecture at Dudley Zoo. The bear pit, abandoned after its residents dug their way to freedom, has the same feeling of crumbling grandeur as a seaside pier. Its squat walls, once stretched over by eager children are too fragile to touch; the building itself is now more dangerous than the beasts it once housed.
Examining her own movement between childhood and adulthood, Natalie Clarke's photograph Girl of Adult Essence reconstructs a childhood memory. Set at dusk – a curfew for many children – a girl, kneeling at the edge of a lake reaches out towards a swan, an action often prohibited by adults citing tales of arm breaking incidents. The girl is free from adult supervision, ultimately responsible for her own actions - a situation at once exhilarating and frightening.
Writer detail:
ROSEMARY SHIRLEY
is an artist based in Winchester
Venue detail:
a space
Bargate Monument, High Street, SOUTHAMPTON SO14 1HF
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