- Venue
- Surface Gallery
- Location
- East Midlands
Nottingham Trent University's Fine Art department presents it's emerging students in five back-to-back shows at the Surface Gallery. Each exhibition is themed by the phrase It couldn't be made up and commences with the debut show At Play, curated by Kat Wojcik.
Guided in and through the space by ropes and architectural strings, new contours are formed overcoming the gallery's L-shape storeroom appeal. 'Arcading #3' by Emma Kemp references graphs and mathematical curves, yet with a crass material of woven string bound across the space the emphasis is slightly less sophisticated. Poetic polythene sand bags hang as points from the taught webbed ceiling, like small weights of time passed. There is a beauty to this work and a clear process of making. Moving about the space I am encouraged to morph in and around the art as it's harp-like lines whisper round edges composed by the artists fingers.
Cushioning Kemps work is 'Breathing Space (Balls)' by Kate Lawrence. These inflated spheres and shapes remind me of Rachel Whiteread's cast teamed with Pak Keung Wan's sensitive breath works. What is experience is aerated polythene shells of negative space that swell with air. They don't enable you to see through only to see brightness within, teasing and pleasing. The work shimmers as you walk past them, grating silken polymer against air particles in space. They seem light masses, gently illuminated and yet are sat heavily squat on the grey floor. Their grandiose wafting veers towards the need for a taller space where they can swallow the surrounding air.
Sonic work by Kat Wojcik, faintly immerses the other artwork in the gallery. Superbly sampled field recordings of textural rustling, creaking and shaking are crisply sound-scaped together. The sounds gently ease in and out of consciousness, carrying through the architecture, drawing you back and forth between the curvaceous strings and inflatables. The workings of the sounds are on show, black-boxed signal carriers that sit comfortably as their designers would wish. The connection to the surrounding work seems somewhat disjointed, but independently there is an exploration of sound in space with reference to music-concrete twinned with the quadraphonic set up.
The great thing about this show is the shining strength in the work combined with a considered delicacy and subtlety to them. There are some works which leave little to be desired and impose uncomplimentary upon other works however this is a damn fine show and there sure is quality emerging.
Amanda Young
