- Venue
- Mercer Art Gallery
- Location
A Touch of Gothic – the Mercer Art Gallery could do a nice line in alternative clothing. The named designer is AnneThalheim. When one is confronted on entering the Mercer, by the Miss Havishams of the permanent collection, pulled out of their store room and dusted down to be ‘all dressed up’, the great and the good of Harrogate, as recorded by their peers, then literally turn left and enter, if you dare, to be met by pieces of black (what else?) Gothic wrought iron garden furniture and twisting plastic ridged tubing underneath red and black vinyl text announcing the artist’s name and the title – ‘Encasement’. Whilst black is the usual tone of the Goth old and new this is more about material choices – formalism? The blacks and reds are the limited palettes of the plumbing and electrical trades, very macho stuff, eh lads? Here they have become fetishistic – a nice bit of twisted rubber bathmat awaits its occupant, a variety of plastic gauze looks like it could be pulled over various body parts, as could black plastic tubing and cable ties. It would be a bit prickly and uncomfortable but that’d be the point . Yet any cultural dumbing down would miss the depth of meaning behind the objects, the references that Thalheim uses – Hardy and Dickens for example, even Stendhal of all people. Thalheim’s artistry ,the ability to use historic textile and dress making techniques and designs, brings gender politics up to date, beyond the usual binary. The materials and their combinations refer to older shamanistic techniques and roles – the masks, the costumes, the totems and extensions/prostheses – to become, sexually, an-other. There are no ‘soft’ organic materials of the objet trouve. This is hard edged stuff , the black rubber bodice stitched with red wiring, the girdle of stiff plastic matting held together with cable clips, the corsetry of tubing and tile spacers, the red foil on the ends of electric-fence poles that look more like open wounds rather than flowers – there are red strands of plastic dripping from them – all sourced from B&Q or Homebase – no wandering of fields and shoreline. The sumptuous and voluptuous is avoided, the titles of the works hold a clue – Bleeding Heart No3, Chrysalis, Love in Memorium, Lost Expectations. As Thalheim says ‘It’s a tug of war’ (Stendhal reference). This ‘tug of war’ includes the audience and the tongue in-cheekyness of the assemblages – ‘hey, that looks like …. ‘ Well it does and this includes a variety of botanical looking objects on the floor or pinned to the walls, enlarged and predetory ameoba – what’s not more sexual than the selfish gene? For me ‘Encasement’ is all about good art, a quality of thought and process, executed and exhibited in the right place. Miss Havisham should head down to Homebase.
