- Venue
- Ikon
- Location
- West Midlands
Review by Charlie Levine
The kitsch space ship has landed at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, where the first museum exhibition by local artist Ruth Claxton is currently on display. ‘ Land’s End ’ is a complex installation of steel hoops that move organically through the upper floor galleries. These grey rings hold somewhat juxtaposed candy coloured plates or mirrors while others remain empty and hollow. The uncertainty of surfaces, whether real or fake confuses the viewer as they navigate themselves through the towers of spirals and curved edges, difficult to begin with as the first gallery leaves little room for manoeuvre as the immense sculptures dominate the space. A carefully placed mirror adds to the depth and magnitude of the floor to ceiling objects. As you move through the galleries the disc structures dissipate and dissolve into floors and walls. The further through the galleries I went the more I enjoyed the work, the spaces between them allowed me to explore the structures and adornments, which I will mention more of in a moment, and I could enjoy what I was looking at. In particular the fungi like shapes that exit the walls up high, that melt into the vast white expanse that surrounds them; the moments before they melt and disappear through the floor where you can only see the peak of the mountains that possibly once were.
The adornments I mention previously are another fascinating and softer side to the metallic hoop constructions. Porcelain figurines usually found upon your Nan ’s mantelpiece sit shyly and small upon their huge display stands. Found at car-boot sales they apparently lack the nostalgic elements and sentimentality usually associated to these ceramic birds and figures. This is not for me the element that alters my pre-conceived notions of such objects; rather it is what Claxton does to these figures that make them alien and vaguely unrecognisable. Through detaching heads and replacing them with jewellery, modeling clay and sequins for example, or string linked from one figures eyes to another they become something else, something more sinister. There is something grotesque about these figures, something reminiscent of a child pulling the head off her dolly or something about the gaze; about the figures not being able to look at each other due to their genetic modifications, or the secrets they are not allowed to tell. These porcelain pieces for me add an edge of feminist concepts against the hardened, unemotional metal woodlands that engulf them.
What I find difficult about this exhibition are its links to the internet and technological landscapes. This connection seems to lure towards buzzwords and key contemporary ideas whereas I did not think they were clear in any aspect of ‘ Land’s End.’ The female gaze, nods to kitsch/retro ideals, construction of landscapes and an awareness of curatorial techniques were all there, however non are mentioned in the accompanying text. Rather it concentrates upon computer technology and an on-line community called ‘Second Life’ that “provides its users anonymity alongside a platform to participate in a real, financially-driven economy.” This thin association of the internet is not reflected within Claxton’s work, the expanse of the installation echoes something more organic. Even through the metallic grey structures there lies an element of nature rather than the clinically thought connection with technology. The text therefore, for me, is misleading and detracts from the fragility of the sculptures. It is only through ‘blinding’ her figurines that she hints at the passive nature of the current technological consumer who is always dislocated from the fake realities found within our computers.
Overall, however, Claxton has presented a lively and initially provocative show. The steel constructions are attractive and you have the want to explore them, especially in the first room, like a jungle explorer, and as less and less fills the space as you continue you are allowed to engage with the objects, rather than the stands, and you begin to bring your own interpretations to the ceramic models and their locations and amputations. Although the show seems to have a certain ‘one trick pony’ element about it I found it an enjoyable show and a great use of the gallery space.
