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A review by Laurence Noga
©Copyright Patrick Morrissey and Clive Hancock All rights reserved.
The current exhibition at Fold Gallery creates a strange and dynamic world of associations
between organic and geometric abstraction. Powerfully inhabiting the static white
basement gallery, the show is inspired by the events and atmosphere in ‘Flatland’,
a Victorian novel written in 1884 by English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott. This
story tells us about the journey of Square, a mathematician, who is a resident of
the two-
Richard Kirwan has an ongoing interest in the orchestration of insistent pattern.
The field of white symbols within all these works (the star of life) makes a connection
between the three paintings. In each segment of each painting the tonal variation
is a conscious choice. The Depth of Field, a painting shown in 2011 in The Indiscipline
of Painting, first at St. Ives and then at Warwick University, is key to understanding
Kirwan’s control of the space and the framing of that space. This reference, and
a Jeff Koons sense of banality, are essential ingredients in this optically-
Partison, Richard Kirwan, 2016. Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 95 cm. Image courtesy of Fold Gallery
Town & Country, Richard Kirwan, 2016, Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 95 cm. Image courtesy of Fold Gallery
Placed directly opposite Kirwan’s work is a set of fifteen paintings by John Wilkins: Jack, 2003. These works are layered entities. The surface is glossy and varnished, that final layer of facture creating objects that are resilient, not just in terms of their physical structure, but also through the reading of the series as a kind of situated event. This event seems to be taking place over an unstated time period, perhaps deep underground, or maybe operating in a more bodily context.
The pictorial depth is still fairly frontal, accentuating a process of overlaying
one complete painting over another in a fluid manner. The drawing looks free-
Jack. John Wilkins, 2003 ,Oil and varnish on canvas and board 30 x 40 cm each. Image courtesy of Fold Gallery
Installation shot. Image courtesy of Fold Gallery
Pool (2015) by Stephen Buckley has a superb physical identity. It is an interwoven and interlocking work, combining a sense of the wounded and the radiant. The feeling of a West Hollywood location, conjured up by the title and the look of the work, gives the painting considerable stature. Certain angles evoke a similar tension to that seen in the work of Max Ernst’s reliefs such as Red Forest (1970), and in Buckley’s recent relief Regatta (2014), the tension in the work comes from the overlay of structures. As Tim Ellis mentioned in a recent talk at Fold Gallery, “Buckley makes things that ought not to work but for whatever reason, they do work, because of that awkwardness that he is not afraid of testing”.
Pool, Stephen Buckley,2015,Oil, canvas, and wood, 30 x 25 x 8 cm. Image courtesy of Fold Gallery
What is startling in this instance is the red glow behind the work, which has an
intense effect against the weight and density of the paint-
Etagnac, Stephen Buckley, 1990, Oil, goldwax, plastic, tubing, canvas, and plywood 122 x 160 cm. Image courtesy of Fold Gallery
Simon Allison’s work brings the darkest set of connotations in the show. The physical
dislocation, the roughly cut edges, and the scrawled gestures give the work added
force, and combine to enable a feeling of machine made memory. The works calls to
mind dirty old London of 1884 -
Fall 174, Simon Allison, 2016 Plywood and lead. 29 x 29 cm. Image courtesy of Fold Gallery
Instrumental to the work of Jane Harris is the integrity of the brushwork and the act of the hand in play, visible in the works’ construction. The perfect structural tectonics pull the focus very close to the surface facture. The oil paint is used with a clarity that allows this microscopic inspection. Zooming in and out of the picture space, the eye is dazzled by the interlocking colour relationships, and how the light plays on the surface patterning. Restless Sublime (2016) has the feeling of a James Turrell sky space in its composition . The atmosphere has a spatio–temporal quality that expands our interpretation of the universe. These works activate a multiplicity of meanings, and connect us back to the compulsion of nature with its vastness and suddenness. In terms of Flatland, the title of the other triptych is fundamental (outlandish) as it allows the feminine to become articulated as darkness and the abyss.
Restless Sublime, Jane Harris, 2016, Oil on wooden panel, 50 x 150 cm. Image courtesy of Fold Gallery
Tim Ellis’s works contains active force and a positive sense of desire. His elongated
paintings are made on cotton pillow cases, sanded down between layers of acrylic
and then varnished very heavily. They work slowly on the senses, and are macroscopic,
allowing you to see the puckered cracks and fissures. El Lissitsky’s New Man, painted
in 1923, contemplates the possibility of thinking about space differently, through
geometric division amenable to transformation. These banner-
Pointland, Tim Ellis, 2016, Acrylic, varnish, cotton, and bulldog clips, 304 x 76 cm. Image courtesy of Fold Gallery
Installation shot. Image courtesy of Fold Gallery