Castor Projects: Trade
29 August – 10 September 2014
16 Little Portland Street, London W1W 8BP
In extolling the virtues of the un-extraordinary, Sol LeWitt wrote that “the most
interesting characteristic of the cube is that it is relatively uninteresting.” Castor
Projects’ inaugural exhibition, Trade, continues the idea of seeing the extraordinary
in the everyday by bringing together a group of five contemporary artists with a
shared interest in the sculptural qualities of low-grade industrial materials.
On first appearances, many works in Trade adhere to the conventions of minimalist
sculpture through their favouring of plain, factory-made or found mass-produced materials.
However, despite the use of raw materials and a consistent colour palette of monochrome
and neutral hues, there is an unexpected, gentle humour displayed by several of the
artists that adds an expressive content to the seemingly austere objects.
Alan Magee’s Return to Glory (2014) is a knowingly witty piece in which the artist
seals up the holes in hula-hoops by filling them with plaster. Magee, along with
Rachael Champion, provides the most light-hearted moments of Trade. Champion’s Naturally
Occuring Brutalist Body (2013) is a bulging dome of pebble-dash that appears to grow
from the gallery wall – challenging the boundaries of construction and organism,
and providing an unavoidable reference to 1970s urban architecture.
Andy Wicks’ understated geometric forms are the most formally reductive works in
Trade. His work has a literal presence, independent of the figurative references
of (for example) Matt Blackler’s oversized cast-iron drill bit and the subtle real-world
references of Magee, Champion and Matt Calderwood, shown physically making and remaking
structures containing six blocks in his film Six Sculptures (2011).
A confident presentation of contemporary sculpture, Trade explores an implied minimalist
abstract space within a wider vernacular of restrained figuration.
Charley Peters, September 2014
