Reviewed: David McNab

A first impression of David McNabs large scale art-work might be one a childlike arrangement of plastic toys or plastic objects. Playing with knowing where to put things. But then you might notice that there is a relationship between the objects other than just how they they have been placed. Further inspection reveals the possibility of something much deeper and more considered. Unless I’m mistaken some of these three hundred or so beachcombed, found objects resemble contraceptive devices and sex aids or toys. And not just a few of them either, a large percentage. Once I’ve noticed/ imagined this link I start to see more of this kind of association. More of them, all over. Interspersed with fine line white chalk drawings on dark blue paper, fine drawings, of, tiny sea-creatures? Then more coils, caps, small plastic phallic forms?

Although this is starting to concern me, its very enjoyable, as a whole thing, an installation. I go for a walk around the piece and there seem to be other links. Deeper undertones referncing the beauty and sublime power of the known and unknown life forms of the vast oceans. Its incredible depths, unknown darknesses, beauties, mysteries and most of all I sense the lessons to be learned from it. A chance to stand back and view our own relationships with the earth? Complicated, over populated some times difficult relationships with nature and the animal world. Through McNabs piece, rightly or wrongly I found a new way of looking at things. So what would the simple, basic needs of these so called ‘un-intelligent’ plastic, still, life forms that have been presented for us to spectate, be? I can only ‘say’ or suppose; sex, birth, food, life, death. Basic cycles. McNab presents a mock up world of harmony, beauty and peacefull tranquility. Symbiosis and the sequestration of CO2 by these tiny life forms. Just going about there buisness reproducing themselves, then falling to the ocean floor – unseen – but sequestering carbon- for us – in so much as they do. At the same time their population controlled by predators, also somewhere near to the bottom of the food chain. The beautifull simplicity of these relationships and environments, largely uncomplicated. Largely unnoticed.

Unlike our own species, these life forms of the oceans appear to have evolved and found their own bold balance, in harmony with their environments. Many millions are born and many will not survive ‘cept  to fullfill their part in the larger picture as a vital part of the system. But myriad life forms continue to thrive, in their own beautifull ways, at their own timescales with the most basic of needs.

The use of the showroom space, the large atrium and entrance hall echo this Jules Verne/ James Lovelock world and invites the viewer to further. To meet and talk to the artist is an experience in itself… You may be abducted and taken into a lift. Taken from floor to floor until quite disoriontated, unsure of your surroundings as he reads to you tales relating to shipwreck or the claustrophobic life of the submariner. Up, down, down, down, up, you are in a strange building, you dont know which floor you are on. It is a small lift. How long will this last? You can’t see which numbers he is pressing as he stands infront of the control panel. He is reading to you out loud and has instructed you to read silently along, with him. Again he is in control. The lift is very small and there are four other people in there with you, pressing against you, invading your personal space. The lighting is low powered, it flickers, orange, dim. The space is very warm and you are dressed in winter clothes. Too tight a space to remove your coat. He stops the lift and you may be given a small paper origami sea creature to take away. Like a good child. Again he is control, you do as you are told. “What are we supposed to do with it?” I stupidly ask. “Are we supposed to open it up?”

“Do whatever you want with it” He says - he thanks us for coming – and we are dismissed. The many different viewpoints of the exhibition space, and its clever use allow either a high up virtigeneous viewpoint, looking straight downward from atop the work. Or a close up, ground level exploration. Eyes level with the top of the water we have a different viewpoint. But are we any cleverer?

I found the paper sea-creature later that evening in my coat pocket. And I got round to thinking about the contemporary atmosphere, the population explosion, the current economic climate, foriegn affairs, and how much simpler things must be in that half light, dark subterranean landscape.

A simple, playful arrangement of small plastic and coloured rubber forms. A handfull of simple chalk line drawings. Perhaps dealing with incredibly deep, important issues. A coincidence maybe. Maybe I could be wrong about  these metaphors and visual ciphers. Reading too much into it. Or maybe it really is there to be learnt from.

Either way, McNab produced a beautifull and thought provoking art-work.

Watch out for work by David McNab and many others at  the upcoming -   MA Contemporary Art shows 2010 from the Students at Sheffield Hallam University.

Chaucer…

I enter what I call a little fair of strangeness. When I step in, nobody is inside. All the guest are outside with their glass, drinking, talking, laughing.

I picture different objects displayed on the floor, some on the wall. As strange as it could appear, for sure, an artist is exhibiting her work here. I am offered the chance to endure seconds of exploring such a bizarre and cold space, full of heterogenous kitsch objects of the past. Then I get disappointed because I cannot weave my thought around an object without being pulled out by big letters displayed on the wall. I cant read, I cant. Disorienting.

I think about an invisible presence when I see glasses displayed on the top of a metallic chair mounted on a flat top made of wood. On the floor, walking by the silent watcher, a group of pigs lined up, they go their way blindly without a shepherd. Where are they going? Towards the wall, for sure. I think about George Orwell, he surges through. The invisible is watching them, he is watching us.  I suppose the artist doesn’t thing the same about. I look up, a globe clings on the ceiling, the world is going off. Are we in the image of these pigs? Are we so disoriented that we don’t notice we are going straight to the wall if we don’t change our behaviour towards nature?

I sneak a look around miscellanous objects. Problem is, they don’t respond each other, they are not interrogative. I said heterogenous in the beginning, I would rather say dispersed, overloaded. They get off. Too much in a small space obstruct the vision. Do I waste precious minutes here? I was wondering whether I could steal or not the glasses. What if I take the letters off the wall? It would change the nature of this exhibition. Would the Panurge pigs not go straight through the wall? I wish I had such power but the invisible presence is watching. The future, the present is to be about making decisions together.

I step out. Guest are still there, laughing, sharing joke, drinking…

Gold Teeth of Despair

The memorabilia matchbox

By BROOK DAVIS

BA students often surprised me this time they surprised me with their innocence.

The Gold Teeth show is flawed in many aspects; there are no single descriptions of the artists involved or about their works, with the understood final result that the whole show is a single installation.

But if he is, many mistakes were made. Or the installation would have to be examined from the outside through the door or a window (non-existent), not allowing the interaction of the visitors or, they would have to create a different layout.

By allowing the entry of the viewers within the installation, it transforms himself from a three-dimensional object to a two-dimensional abstract object, losing the entire context and leads the viewer to individual interpretations of each piece but if so, again, where are the title of the individual pieces and the name of their authors? In other words, the installation becomes disconnected.

Big Brother

Curiously walking in the installation takes us through a surreal world full of innuendos and misunderstandings, foreign travels, movies, music, hobbies … In fact a disconnected world.

However, if as a collective being the installation fails, at the individual level, some of the works live alone, especially because the connotations that we (the viewers) can assigned.

Three of them made me remember interesting situations; a globe attached to a beam in the ceiling, leading to its axis is to be inverted, reminding us of the eminent December 21, 2012 and the reversal of the earth axis. A brilliant installation with glasses on the top of a tower and in is feet a row of pigs confronting a row of sheep at an impasse of immobility, giving clear George Orwell references from 1984, all-seeing omnipresent Big Brother and Animal Farm, the fighting among pigs (ruling class) and sheep (work class). And last but not the least, a set of memorabilia consisting of matchbox arranged as a pennant leading us to a question whether it is just a display of memorabilia or be a flag pro/against tobacco.

Analyzing the whole is an interesting show, and some of the artists have future.

Want to read more? Writings from my Head

Gold Teeth

I really liked this show. I almost loved it but was held back by a slight feeling of jealousy. When I entered the space I thought, ‘shit, this is probably better than our show’. This often happens when I go to see BA work, they lack the fear that MA students seem to have and the work , or the way they use the space, is often better for it (not always though). MA students know too much about what they are doing, this drains the work of excitement. Anyway, I felt excited about the stuff on display this evening. That was my initial reaction. As I moved through I started to feel a little hemmed in, there was too much going on. One student told me he felt that the concept overshadowed the work, what concept? I thought. The concept of a flea market, a vintage shop? There was so much going on it was hard to find a unifying theme, there wasn’t enough irony for it to be ironic, but it was smart, I could sense that beneath the clutter. The concept, if there needed to be one, was overshadowed by the stuff. There was architecture, geometry, collections, display, nostalgia, and a globe clamped to a beam. Too much. Although from the doorway, with no-one else in the space it all came together as a kind of pictoral illusion of a 2d composition. It was beautiful. The care that had gone into the arrangement suggested that the viewer hadn’t been planned into the installation. Maybe they should be kept out, left at the door to view and not disturb. I began to edit, sub-curate within the show. The glass image of the family enjoying the Lake District set upon the foam plinth worked well with the spectacles and the plastic animals. This could stand alone as an installation. The framed text piece ‘he said she said’ with the piece of wood delicately placed leading the eye up toward the angle where wall meets ceiling, I thought was lovely…simple. These two by the two separate artists could have been the group show. Instead what I sensed was an invasion. If my older sister asked me if she could exhibit her work with mine, on my degree, in my final year…I would have to say no. I understand how hard that can be (lucky for me my sister works in recruitment), but Linny should have said ‘NO!’ the work went together like oil and water in this space, the contrast wasn’t drawing attention to anything, the texts were like someone shouting and interrupting our conversation. Linny’s work has a sensitivity and subtlety that could be just amazing, given the space to breathe. It really doesn’t need  a big sister breathing down its neck.