24/7/2002
Piccadilly Radio
Tower Records, London
Ben Woodeson takes over the Bowieart window at Tower Records, Piccadilly on 25 July with an installation that is sure to induce intrigue as well as attack the senses of its unsuspecting viewers.
Bowieart Window Pain Project ll presents:
Piccadilly Radio by Ben Woodeson
Ben Woodeson takes over the Bowieart window at Tower Records,
Piccadilly on 25 July with an installation that is sure to induce
intrigue as well as attack the senses of its unsuspecting viewers.
Endless tins of tomatoes and masses of wire will fill the window for
the duration of the show to create a captivating scene for the
passer-by who may wonder if they have chanced upon an unsavory canteen
rather than an art installation. On closer inspection of the opened
tins one notices the metal plates that have been positioned within the
liquid and the wires that protrude from the surface of each. A sense of
unease may prevail until one hears the familiar sound of a radio coming
from a nearby loudspeaker. Does this explain the mess of muddled wires?
Could this be the work of a mad professor?
What may once have been intended to be a compact radio transistor has
become an absurd contraption; a ridiculous and awkward collection of
jumbled, taped and soldered parts, powered by cheap tinned tomatoes.
Using the assemblage of tins housed in the exhibition space and a
pseudo scientific approach the artist powers a radio, which can
appropriately be heard within the entrance to the record store.
Woodeson's experimental and investigative style combines with an
ongoing fascination in energy and technology, while his attraction
to and repossession of the equipment and food seems to hold an almost adolescent
virtue. For some it may look as if a teenage boys bedroom
cum science lab has been magically transported to the depths of
Piccadilly. However the visual impact and seemingly chaotic
arrangement of the scene indicates concerns beyond the purely playful.
Whether using the activating qualities of growth, heat, energy or
smell within his work, Woodeson is eager to push the parameters of his
materials; previous works have included the deliberate cultivation of aspejillus
mould on a domestic carpet, 35 electric fires hung from a
ceiling (each of which heated a cup of tea), or in the artist's most
recent installation; 783.6cm to 783.83cm at 70°C, lifting the roof
of Glasgow's Tramway Gallery through the heat generated by an electrical
inductance coil wrapped round one of the pillars. Ben Woodeson graduated
from The Master of Fine Arts Programme at Glasgow School of Art in
June 2002; he is the grandson of the German artist Jack Bilbo, and
lives and works in Glasgow.
Ben Woodeson opens 25 July 2002 and runs till 25 August 2002
Image: Ben Woodeson Assimilation 1
For images and further information on the Window Project or Bowieart
contact Beth Mears
+44 (0) 20 7352 4976
beth@kcfa.ftech.co.uk
http://www.bowieart.com
http://www.woodeson.co.uk
With thanks to Roberts Radio
Tower Records, 1 Piccadilly, London, W1