- Venue
- Surface Gallery
- Location
Completion deems its host ready for exterior consumption, yet what happens when an exploration is forced into the spotlight unresolved? Nicola Pomery and Mark Selby showcase a series of provocations that have not reached finality. Instead, transitory endeavours are forced to perform, revealing artistic indecision and irresolution opposed to a definitive outcome.
The presented work does not appear to be awaiting an end, but instead portrays moments of clarity or specific pathways of progression. Such clarity is heightened by the use of spotlights, which add a theatrical ambiance to the space. The lighting glorifies the work it immerses, elevating the status of mundane objects, ambiguous contraptions and unassuming gestures. Mark Selby’s A Hole in My Shoe is enhanced by such focus; the pair of waxed shoes instantly lifted to the status of ambivalent provocation. A similar transformation is apparent in Nicola Pomery’s Untitled 2007-2008 (Work in progress), as bulky packages assume a state of vital significance, despite their concealed contents. Consequently, the spotlights evoke a pause or moment of reflection. This hiatus is revelatory within the confines of the gallery, as the halt in artistic production allows the objects to speak for themselves. Void of artists intentions, the exhibited items thwart considerate exploration of a material or situation by revealing a dominance of violence and frustration. Chipped surfaces, vigorous brush strokes, frenzied pencil marks and objects that insinuate an inescapable cycle of transmission amalgamate to form a destructive scene of confinement. Consequently, the exhibition allows material revelation. A by-product of action takes the stage, emphasising the notion of destruction through comprehension.
Irresolution is further emphasised through the latent potential that dangles within the gallery space. Untitled 2007-2008 Pen on Paper forges a direct pathway across the adjoining gallery walls. The viewer embarks on a journey, walking along a paper trail that infers passing time, only to be met by an indefinite end. The blank paper left hanging is a deliberate indication of prospective growth. Untitled 2007-2008 (work in process) echoes a similar notion with a section of vacant shelving. The leaning bags of post suggest that the piece is not yet strong enough to support itself, whilst the empty space along the row implies prospective accumulation. As a result, absence becomes the viewer’s chief informer. Delicately pined to the wall, or precariously balanced on the shelving, both paper and object are portrayed as fragile remnants of a past action. In this sense absence has a stronger presence than the actual objects, presenting itself as a definite possibility rather than a souvenir from an unresolved exploration.
Mark Selby’s vacant scenarios test the role of absence further. Mobile Phone implies a constant flux of information as viewers are invited to relay messages only to find them delivered barely inches away from where they first began. Let’s Sit Down and Talk suggests a similar continuity but deters direct interaction, the implied conversation theoretically swaying back and forth through an elaborate mechanism. Without performers to operate them, these pieces are independent actors that imply but do not deliver, even if physically engaged with. Instead of a static pause, they are a looped stutter, proposing a relay of new information coupled with dissatisfactory reciprocation. Immersive experience is contradicted by theoretical bystander as the objects address notions of function and folly. Operating like a doomed game of snakes and ladders, the work culminates in a constant reverberation. Confliction and dissatisfaction are integral in such scenarios, echoing the artist’s own sentiments towards the objects themselves, which are built as a response but ironically give an unclear invitation as to how to respond to them.
A Hole in My Shoe offers a similar void. In this piece an object with familiar resonance is transformed into an alien body with uncertain rules of engagement. A video of the artist brushing the shoes with wax attempts to justify the object, evoking a lack of confidence in its current state. Absence of assurance is reiterated by Nicola Pomery in Untitled 2007 – 2008 (work in progress). The accompanying video hints at the contents of the packages through evolving stills of an increasingly battered breeze block and its accompanying debris. A wait is implied as the slumped packages that queue to be opened remain uncertain whether such a gesture will ever come to fruition. The display of the piece is an embodiment of uncertainty, with neither actual process nor object revealed in its presentation. Hesitance and vagueness are vehicles that allow the objects to embody their past whilst relaying current indecision. This staggered pause exposes objects of ambiguous status, which loiter between success and failure with profound uncertainty as to whether they could operate without their additional supports.
By presenting unresolved endeavours, Selby and Pomery project and unload their uncertainties onto the viewer. Subsequently, wait, pause and stutter have become reflective devices that invite the viewer to comprehend through exploration. The works presented assume the status of frozen thoughts and processes. Transported into a public stage, they are forced to perform succinctly with each other to engage their audience. In this way, the pieces operate as vehicles for dialogue and exchange forging a friction between continuous relay and continual expansion. In essence, these are pieces that ask more questions than they seek to address. They embrace uncertainty and present a platform for process and materials to articulate unforeseen developments. Yet above all they portray a lack of ending as deliberate, casting the very idea of the ‘end’ as an indefinable, unachievable or irrelevant notion within a greater quest for comprehension.
