- Venue
- 3¡W Gallery
- Location
Best known for winning the Jerwood Sculpture Prize (for Field, in 2005), Judith Dean has just completed a residency at The Wordsworth Trust in Grasmere. A solo show has opened to present the work completed during her time there.
The three room space, which is small and oddly configured, is full of interventions and objects, many of which have their origins in the allotment Dean worked in throughout the summer as a way of contemplating how her work might proceed. Roots of plants are presented as wall pieces; a molehill is transplanted into the space, on which a monitor shows a short loop of the molehill itself being made, and moulds of other molehills (complete with grass and bits of soil still impressed into the white plaster). These Moleds are then flipped and displayed on similarly upturned carpet tiles. A hose is coiled on two non-matching brackets in front of a blue ink stain dripped down the white wall (Water Feature). Next to that is a low boxy construction surrounding a part of the gallery floor denuded of its carpet and sprinkled with compost and sequins. A sheep skull – something of a Cumbrian icon – surmounted with a butterfly sits next to it all. It is called Plot (lost).
A drive to pare away is evident in various forms throughout the gallery. An understairs cupboard is open, showing the usual detritus, but there is also a large “rubbish kebab” made from trash collected locally. Parts of the walls have been skinned to reveal shelves on which small pieces made from coloured thread are displayed. Dean was probably the kind of kid who continually looked under rocks to see what was there.
Outside Egde (Grasmere Version) is made up of two windowless frames, one on the floor leaning against the wall and the other on the wall itself. If indeed there was a window it would show a view back towards Grasmere village, taking in Helm Crag and other peaks. On either side of this non-window are twenty odd postcards of Grasmere. These postcards present a glossy, ideal version of the village. Again, we're invited to consider the surface and the assumptions that surface presents, only this time we are not shown what is behind. Of course it's there when we leave the gallery.
In the accompanying book – which is rather gorgeous by the way – Dean talks of some pieces being “elements” rather than works that could have a life away from this exhibition. In that sense the show hovers between installation and exhibition and is all the more intriguing for it. The works/elements feed off one another and a sense of purpose and enquiry gently gathers momentum as one moves around.
Dean is concerned with both the surface of her surroundings and also in finding out what lurks beneath that same skin, including the gloss that language can give to art. The titles like the works themselves are, witty and smart, adding to the pieces without sledgehammering some “meaning” into place. But any meaning is probably hiding just under the surface anyway.
Artist, arts administrator and writer.Check out http://www.bryaneccleshall.co.uk
