- Venue
- Surface Gallery
- Location
- East Midlands
Temporary Surfaces at Surface gallery consists of one room and 28 reasonable sized pieces. I found the first word to describe what greeted me: childish. The air a little cold while works with large personality stuttered amongst themselves on the opening night. Viewers I spoke to found it difficult to interact with the low-fi materials and somewhat inaccessible subject matter. It all felt a little high school. That is until you actively chose to open up to the work, letting it speak and giving it the confidence to converse fully with you and the pieces around it.
Sarah Bowker-Jones and Sarah West’s show Temporary Surfaces is intriguingly successful. A discerning eye can see their conscious attempts to create a playground like dialogue. The various, busy and vibrant sculptures and paintings can appear ill considered in the space, but, as described in the Temporary Surfaces blog, both artists hone “a playful approach they apply at irregular stages” (2012). The artists suggest vehemently that their work is very much about the unknown in the experimental. The blog further explains, “objects or imagery are strangely familiar but their placement in the works initiates reflective questions of their new context and use” (2012). This is reflected not only through the seemingly erratic, claustrophobic yet hollow show lay-out which forms an intriguing conversation between the two artists’ work, but also in the work itself.
Bowker-Jones’ predominantly sculptural practice works on the basis of what she calls ‘system and play’. She intuitively works with materials to create a visual language. Essentially pure experimentation, however, the artist’s materials are often reflective of a desired aesthetic. Certain colours repeat, textures regularly repeat. Bowker-Jones work has an ugly delicacy to it, the colours frustrate, clash, their display also does this, but this is intriguing, not repulsive. Bowker-Jones gives the artwork space to breath, to mutate, to respond to the world around it, as demonstrated by Hot Pop 2 (slowly deflating), which consists of many balloons inside a foil sack, the balloons slowly deflating over the period of the show. In the piece Moanin’, what looks like waxy reinforced tissue paper called quadraxical fabric hangs over a seemingly unstable geometric sculpture. The name here particularly lends to this delicacy, the instability which flows through much of her work, Moanin’ seems to moan under its weight, despite being draped in such a light, delicate fabric, the structure beneath seems very unsure of its footing, as though it could fall if a stranger walked by too fast. Bowker-Jones’ sculptures seem to all come from one wave-length on which the artist is operating – fragile, nervous, delicate pieces over compensating for themselves, distracting the viewer from their fearful nature by being ugly, forceful and violent on the surface. This is oddly beautiful, as though the artwork speaks like a person, it seems the work is displaying a visual language based on experimentation suggesting this lovely contradiction. Whether this contradictive mood comes directly from the artist’s personal feelings and thoughts has not been expressed but one suspects. The surfaces she creates are fascinating, a particularly visceral and attractive material she uses is the polythene coated in acrylic used to create certain geometric sculptures. Fixed together with robust DIY fixings this material seems quite flimsy, soft and flexible in nature, not meant for building, but the fixings bring strength and the overlaying of acrylic on its surface reinforces it.
It seems West and Bowker-Jones are a match made in heaven, both essentially wishing to display what lies beneath the surface by exposing a veil as a veil. West’s practice consists of removing varying images from newspapers and magazines, and as she puts it “analysing and reacting to chance shots of unpredictable subject and composition” (2012). Note West’s avoidance of the word ‘play’ or ‘experiment’, unlike Bowker-Jones, West’s work feel highly considered and thought out, she allows room for little chance unlike her counterpart. This is where a truly interesting dialogue between the works exists. Upon first observation West’s paintings hold significantly less presence than Bowker-Jones’ sculptures. One can suggest the physicality of Jones’ work in the space overrides the paintings. Whether this is purposeful is unclear, however this juxtaposition between the two seems to work to allow the paintings to find a voice, bouncing off of the sculpture; if the sculptures are the arrogant, loud and fascinating talkers, the paintings are the enigmatic, self-effacing whisperers telling of the insecurity behind arrogance to those who’ll listen. It is as though West is seeking to find the fragility in the media she scavenges and the icons she gathers, to strip them back and find the reality behind them by conflicting the images with paint and surface, revealing inner depths and layers. This is particularly reflected in the careful naming of her work, for example Weights features a woman heavily strapped down with belts to something unknown and featuring ornate weights, reminiscent of jewellery, suggesting a weighing down, trapped by our daily adornments. Warpaint features only a woman’s hair, no facial elements, implying perhaps a woman’s hair is her armour, her barrier against those around her. West’s paintings are an observation of the world around us, hence their painting form – a snapshot of something or someone else, a mirror held by West to the world she sees. As opposed to Bowker-Jones’ manifestations of something within her, an instinctive response to her natural experimental desires, displaying a being that is part of herself in the form of sculpture. The painting is talking about the sculpture, while the sculpture is talking about itself. Consequently the two balance each other out. The paintings have articles to push against giving their point greater strength, while the paintings give the sculptures context and prevent the sculptures becoming intoxicatingly self involved.
Upon first impression Temporary Surfaces seems like a dribble down a windowpane. And in a sense this is correct. It is subtle and complex and it grows and alters around you. One could claim it was unsuccessful as so many viewers will enter the show and leave with out so much as an attempt to disect the work. However this is not a show that would work if you understood it immediately. It starts off as a trickle, and as you let it gather momentum as you explore further into its depths it becomes a stream and eventually a river, flowing around you. You are not passive to West and Bowker-Jones’ work, you must open up to it, treat it like a living being. If you give it the time of day the work can speak volumes.
