- Venue
- Backlit
- Location
- East Midlands
Conceptual art can, by definition, confound the viewer by presenting a visual language that needs to be translated by the viewer. Cues are presented through knowingly hinting at historical works and narratives, but also through theoretical means with colour and form; what is interesting is when a viewers existing knowledge conflicts through their own, unique perception of these elements. The viewer is a canvas ready to be worked upon with the inherent challenges of artefacts that require a dissemination of thoughts and ideas in order to unlock their potential value to the beholding eye.
In one of the five rooms containing ‘Raw’, sit three unsupposing works by Livia Garcia. One is on a traditional plinth, another on a small wooden table and the third sits atop an old broken stepladder. Each work has a delicacy directly related to its scale, each small yet perfectly formed in their roughness. There is a play-off between fragility and solidity as each work contains a very deliberate juxtaposition between simple pencil lines, sand, rock and leaf. These combinations of man made and natural, or balls of rock and cubes of sand sat on grid squares suggest an alignment that is designed with precision in relationship to measurements, as if the room was the workshop of a being creating another universe.
Jonathan Kipps’ work seems to resonate with this, bringing together elements of sculpture and painting to produce objects which seem to have just appeared within the spaces. The first dominates the room, tucked inbetween wall and pillar, a sprawling yet solid mass of glossy black wood. The next room contains a monolith with a messy matt purple-black surface, stood in one corner. These elements on their own draw thoughts of 2001 and discovery, of a path to enlightenment or at least a developing and evolving knowledge as the viewer tries to discover what it is that these objects represent.
Something in its raw state is unrefined, unprepared, as found. It is simple, and holds potential to be of far greater significance than it is in its simplest form whether altered and refined by itself or in conjunction with other raw things; therein the age-old adage of something being greater than the sum of its parts is intriguing. Raw is the starting point for a creative process just as it is the origin of an uneducated mind. Kant used the term ‘Raw Man’ to help discuss the progress of man from a primitive state to what is seemingly an advanced state of knowledge, ability and communicativeness. It is from this raw point that we begin to take on knowledge and experiences that start to form our beliefs and sociological structure perhaps through a Heidegger-esque process of meeting and communicating.
There is a second view to each of Kipps’ sculptural works, but to see it involves taking a step, and moving around the work. With one, this is simple, revealing the inside of this rectangular cabinet to be curved by a stretch of white canvas from top to bottom corner creating an optical illusion of depth and space, like a sort of 3-D Bridget Riley or a low-tech Anish Kapoor. The top of this cavity is a fluorescent orange, you feel as if you could step inside this Tardis-like object and disappear into a pure white world. The second sculpture requires you to step around it, to squeeze between the black and the wall until on the opposite side a curve of canvas upon which purple paint has been able to take its own course, flowing over the structure. There is a delicacy in these two works as well as a surrendering of the final results to he natural flow and ability of the materials, but in this context it is that need to move around the work, to discover what they almost conceal that is interesting.
In Garcia’s second room the floor is covered in eggshells, or more precisely eggshells halved and cleaned, each with a print of an eye on acetate placed inside. They are all emerging from a simple cardboard box placed on its side as if they have been released to go and discover what they find. The eyes suggest intelligence and perceptiveness, the shells a delicate exterior inseparable from ideas of birth and life, whether these objects have been delivered and escaped in a quest to satisfy their curiosities and thus develop from their simple form. Garcia talks of re-structuring found objects to break pre-supposed boundaries and provoke thought in order to approach metaphysical ideas: something that is demonstrated clearly in her compositions of stone and sand.
The fourth room contains Beth Shapeero’s ‘Blobs on the Wall’, four shapeless forms of different colour paint, fixed in an impossible way to the gallery wall. They have an underwritten beauty in their simplicity, with no pretention (especially with such a deadpan title). Shapeero gives no clues, instead leaving the viewer with the opportunity to explore these objects for what they are, rather than what they are dressed up to be. Simple and understated, they become uncontrolled Ellesworth Kelly’s, the paint allowed to run and set as it pleases, but without the traditional support of canvas.
Now, I am certain that the title ‘Raw’ refers to several elements, the materials and the development of them but also to the Raw Man Kantian theory, whether or not this was deliberate however is debateable. The show does fit the bill and is, in most ways, quite good, but there is an underlying issue in that the curator has tried to place three solo shows under one title, not a simple task at any time. It is debateable as to whether or not it has been successful, the individual works could certainly fit the title, but that doesn’t mean they work as a group show. There is something lacking, and it’s hard to place. Garcia’s work needs to sit in two rooms, not just because of scale but because I’m not convinced the eggshells sit well with the rest, and Kipps’ second work lacks the polished finish of his first on its exterior. That seems to sum up the show, although I am convinced it is one of the better shows I have seen at Backlit (more cohesive and considered than most), it lacks a bit of polish, as does the work. Each artist is definitely moving in the right direction but…not….quite…..there…..yet.
