I'm suffering from extreme physical inertia at the moment. I've spent a good proportion of today pricking holes in 16mm film so I think I need to get out. Surface Gallery have invited me to a closing party for the show which is now their last. As I missed the opening due to malaise I might give this one a go. Hayley (www.hayleylock.com), also in the show, might be going too so I won't have to hire an escort. Both of the readers of this blog will have already noticed, because of my constant moaning, that I am uncomfortable at openings (& closings). Apart from free drink and company I usually turn up at private views hoping to be struck by lightning. It does happen, but I always feel stupid standing there waiting waving my umbrella in the air.
The show at Studio Voltaire got a review in Time Out. Reviews are something else that I also crave. Something to do with lack of confidence or megalomania or both. Here's an excerpt:
Elisabeth Lecourt’s painting of a greyish, blank-faced female head reverberates, in its inhumanity, with Alex Pearl’s economically unnerving, half-comic DVD of what appears to be a backlit effervescing tablet in water, the holes in it representing malevolent eyes and mouth, disintegrating and ascending.
Break such works down and their tension dissipates. In the moment of reception, though, they cast small but effective spells.
By Martin Herbert
I was pleased to be mentioned alongside Lecourt's painting and that they used a photo of my favourite piece in the article (Reflect, 2008 by Kim Coleman and Jenny Hogarth). Most of all I liked what I take to be mild criticism in the penultimate line. When I dream about eating; as I bite into the apple, donut, whatever, there is always nothing there. I've always wanted to make art like that.
