exhibition

Men and motors

Artists Deborah Gough, Jo Wilmot

04.Jul.08 - 27.Jul.08
Friday-Sunday 12-6 or by appointment

Studio 1.1
57a Redchurch St
London E2 7DJ
07952 986 696
studio1-1.gallery@virgin.net
www.studio1-1.co.uk
Tube Liverpool Street, Old Street, Shoreditch / Hoxton

Studio 1.1 is delighted to present ‘Men and Motors’, a sardonic look at masculinity from two young women painters, Deborah Gough and Jo Wilmot.

Gough paints large narrative canvases, setting out disquieting scenarios which simultaneously attract and disturb the viewer. Something makes us slightly queasy staring at this semi-naked young man staring back at us from his bedsit mattress - he’s not quite Manet's Olympia (the pose is reversed although the attitude is similar), and are those two girls in the room or in his head? They touch each other for his/our gratification more than their own, smiling for our approval. And is that the artist peering through the window? Where literally does she fit in? ‘The Inadequacy of Being Fat and Ugly’ turns Wilde’s play title on its head with an irony that can only unsettle.

Jo Wilmot gives us another lust object - cars, sensually painted, gleam in luxurious showrooms, their headlights winking at us. The money we might not have does not stop us wanting the latest model. Waiting to be taken for a drive, sex and fast cars supply what we are told is the ultimate male wish-fulfillment. Is it (not?) a pretty sight? The lovingly polished bodywork is displayed for our delectation. Wilmot is also an outsider in this world of conspicuous consumption. Showrooms; showgirls. The spaces of fantasy are continuous; the arenas for product display are the same.

Whatever progress there has been since Emily Davison threw herself under the King’s horse, all the king’s men have signally failed to construct a society in which women are valued equally, and therefore we are actively reminded by both artists that despite years of ‘liberation’ and supposed equality, it remains a man's world: the way men view women to a large part still determines how women view themselves.