23/2/2012
John Strutton
Domo Baal, London
Opus Dopus shows an installation in 3 distinct areas offering a glimpse into Strutton's recent practice: drawings from the monumental to the intimate in scale, a sculptural tableau and in the main gallery a new video 'Opus Dopus' in 6 chapters.
"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of
art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first
opened."
Albert Camus
Camus wrote these lines in an introduction to a volume of his collected essays as a
kind of epitaph to the experience of looking back over twenty years of writing and I
have always loved the sentiment of inhabitation these words conjure in me. It's the
word "trek" that that does it, the act of walking with something on your back. You
know it's there but when you turn around to see what the weight is, it's nowhere to
be seen. It's not like pilgrim's burden because you don't really want to cast it off
because it's the tent you are going to pitch when it starts pissing down with rain.
But wandering up and down plays havoc with the contents of your bag and whenever its
time to unpack, things are never in the same order you put them back in.
"I could have been somebody, I just couldn't be bothered" is a phrase I always
attribute to Tony Hancock but to be honest I can only hear my dad saying it to great
comic affect at one of our house parties or down the pub. All the potential of the
great hero set aside in preference for a quick pint with the lads after a hard days
work. This kind of "sacrifice" seems at odds with today's drive to fulfil personal
ambition at all costs and sod everyone else. Words don't make a voice and a voice
often belongs more to the one hearing it than the speaker. I also have a memory of
my mother saying "you got mud on your boots and shit on your shoes" when as kids we
returned from what we used to call 'the moors', but again I can't be sure that it
wasn't that northern comedian who used to say "I was stood standing there!" Loud and
clear voices. Great and simple images. It would all be so much easier if it were in
front of you. But only very particular travellers wear their rucksacks on the front.
I saw a memorial stone recently that started with the words "No Epitaph Is Needed to
Record His Worth". I like the perversity of this kind of modesty being carved in
stone.
John Strutton, London 2012
Domo Baal is delighted to present John Strutton's second solo show in the gallery.
Opus Dopus will show an installation in 3 distinct areas offering a glimpse into
Strutton's recent practice: drawings from the monumental to the intimate in scale, a
sculptural tableau and in the main gallery a new video 'Opus Dopus' in 6 chapters:
1.Head Case
2.Original Copy
3.Cactus & Curtains
4.Spaere Non Sanguinum
5.Red Mist
6.Quicumque
"John Strutton's short series of films offer the uninitiated a real insight into his
studio practice, which incorporates drawing, personal archives, music and video and
render to the viewer privileged user access to surf Strutton's rich interior world;
one informed as much by tricks of the light on a difficult day as pop culture or the
non–neutrality of objects and particular forms of expression as tools for thought.”
Rebecca Geldard, from her introduction on John Strutton for 'Other Surfaces' at
Poppy Sebire, January 2012
Opening 24 february 6-8pm
Domo Baal
3 John Street London
opening hours: thursday to saturday 12 to 6pm during exhibitions and at other times by appointment