exhibition

PLAY

01.Nov.07 - 16.Nov.07
Mon-Sun 12.30-5pm

Bearspace
33-34 Cornwell Rd.
London
SE1 8TJ
020 86948097 / 020 8691 2085
bearspace@mac.com
www.bearspace.co.uk

PLAY brings together 15 contemporary artists in an
exhibition that explores the spontaneity, anarchic tendency,
materials & subtext to the playful in recent contemporary art.
The selected artists work in ways which incorporate play, both in their attitude
to the making of art and anticipated response from the viewer. Fun is a definite
aspect of the work. Firstly through the artist’s use of medium, cutting and
splicing through paper, paint, film and digital media, overlaid in a scrapbook type
assemblage. Other artworks feature found objects, often discarded or collected
and recycled into new forms, subverted, played with and given new context.
Works of high polish and completion confront the layered and often rough
quality of other pieces, both display an anarchic side, challenging ones view of
the finished product. Some works can be seen as defiance against artwork as
commodity, often messy and rough around the edges. Materials are allowed to
burst out and at times are left unfinished. This low-fi nature adds to the almost
throwaway quality often associated with the ‘prototype’ or ‘maquette.’
Many artists on display refuse to place themselves within a natural discourse.
The manipulation of materials placed together in different combinations form an
odd marriage oscillating between material & subjectivity, teasing the viewer into
playing with the artist on terms that fit with their particular game. Most work,
however playful uses what could be seen as superficiality through material and
process, to highlight subtext buried in some cases deep within the work. As one
contemplates this work through layers of material, colour and image quite often
a reading of the work becomes apparent through an outward packaging.
At a time when the artist becomes almost a lost voice through the layers of market
placement, these works are defiant examples of play as transgressive performance,
resisting art market commodification, with more in common to the bona fide
underground of Punk in the 70s and early 80s pre-mass marketing. Some may see
this as an exploration and return to craft, their art seeks a purist understanding of
materials & underground notions that inform and hold up these works.