Stealth
dal 25/6/2003 al 26/7/2003
Segnalato da
25/6/2003
Stealth
Motinternational, London
Anna Barham, Steve Colson, Tony Peakall, Julian Wild. In the spirit of stealth MOT will approach the work with curatorial stealth, rehanging the exhibition several times throughout its duration. Elements may be added or taken away, sometimes in collaboration with the artist, sometimes in order to confound the artist and their intention.
Anna Barham, Steve Colson, Tony Peakall, Julian Wild
Private View 26th June 6-9
While browsing at an art bookshop I noticed a young man enter and make his way
to the magazines. He picked up one of the glossies and started to leaf through
it. Suddenly all the loose ad cards fell out onto the floor. Calmly the young
man bent down to pick them up and, as he did so, I noticed him reach into his
pocket, pull out a small card and insert it with the others into the magazine
and replace it back on the shelf. He then walked out of the shop.
MOT were interested in how work could unfold, almost secretly, able to creep up
on the viewer, undetected, to infiltrate the consciousness through stealth,
rather than shock. We looked for work that was almost invisible, not so much
minimal, more that it was able to blend with its surroundings. In the spirit of
stealth MOT will approach the work with curatorial stealth, rehanging the
exhibition several times throughout its duration. Elements may be added or taken
away, sometimes in collaboration with the artist, sometimes in order to confound
the artist and their intention. like a cat plays with its prey before the kill,
MOT will taunt the preconceptions of its audience and with the help of special
forces, STEALTH will break through your defences.
Anna Barham makes work that adds to or even dresses the space in which it is
shown. It is often slight and easily missed upon first viewing. Be it tin foil
arranged out of the way on the ceiling of a gallery or paper doilies placed
around the bases of pillars, Barham’s work is always just enough, never
needlessly showy, it hides itself shyly in some corner waiting to be discovered,
intelligently patient, slowly collecting the persistent attentions of the
connoisseur who sees beyond the boisterous shouting strategies endlessly
employed by the fame seekers jostling to be noticed by the big men on the river.
For STEALTH Anna Barham will be showing lengths of angled steel that have been
drilled full of holes mimicking the patterns of paper doilies.
Julian Wild utilises plumbing materials, creating complicated ducting
configurations that have none of the traditional uses associated with the
materials. copper pipe traverses walls and ceilings, blending into the physical
workings of the spaces that the work seeks to transcend. Not much differentiates
these new systems from those that they seek to mimic, except, apart from their
redundancy as working vessels for the transportation of water or gas, Wild’s
plumbing is confounded by the introduction of rogue elements. This could be as
simple as a bulge in the pipe, partly comic, yet vaguely plausible, just enough
to make you rethink your initial response to the work.
Steve Colson carved a giant rabbit last year as part of the MOT Summer Project.
An element of this piece was a large shadow of the rabbit rendered in MDF. For
STEALTH Colson will be presenting sculptures that are just the shadows. As to
what will cast these projections, remains unclear. There may be a threat of
narrative. Apparitions may blend into the very fabric of the gallery. All could
depend on the light. A tactic has been employed to keep us guessing.
Tony Peakall has been working on the same project for five years. Every Summer
over the weekend during the early hours Tony drives through the streets of
London in search of new prey. Once his victim is located and tracked down,
overalls, florescent work jacket and hard hat are donned, one large can of road
marking spray is employed and another London Gallery is tagged. Each receives
the same mark, an arrow denoting the boundary between art space and the street
and the abbreviation GAL. Three photographs are taken to document the gallery,
its location and the tag. This process is repeated five times a night. Upon
hearing about this work you suddenly start noticing these marks all around the
city, even outside MOT. It is their invisibility and the stealth employed in
order to disguise the process that is intriguing about this piece. MOT are
looking forward to the challenge of how to show a work that has existed on the
perimeter of the gallery and ensnare it within the context of a
gallery exhibition without taming.
Intrigued I bought the Magazine.
Open Fri, Sat, Sun 12-5 or by appointment
FUTURE EXHIBITIONS AT MOT
SCRAMBLED 1st - 29th August
Simona Brinkmann, Maria Fusco, Melanie Stidolph
In the image: Anna Barham, 'Refuge', 2001.
MOT
Unit 54/5th floor Regents Studios
8 Andrews Road London E8 4QN
t +44 (0)7931 305 104