in(ter)ventions
An exhibition of site specific work at the Coach House, 28 Barnsbury Square,
London N1, October 12th-26th 2002
Five artists have produced work in response to a rambling Victorian house,
coach house and garden. The site has undergone a number of changes in use
since being built, fluctuating from a domestic space to light industrial use
and back again. The artists have made use of its rich history within the context
of their site specific work for this exhibition.
The entrance to the exhibition itself provides a provocative shift in focus.
A recovered original factory sign swings gently on its bracket above you,
and the door is a small aperture cut into the larger wooden double doors of
the coach house. The atmosphere and tone of the approach has already altered
our awareness of the everyday and familiar. You need to bend down to step
over the threshold.
Tony Charles - DOMESTIC STEEL PLANT contrasts a broader perspective on industrialisation
with the more specific adaptation of the house. The artist lives and works
in Teesside, and his interests lie in the collision between the industrial
and domestic worlds.
Exotic tassels, the kind that decorate soft furnishings, couture clothes and
sometimes intimate underwear, are suspended from a small Japanese maple tree.
They look like floral extravagances or eccentric fruits bursting into bloom
on this miniature thigh-high tree. On closer inspection though you can see
that they have in fact been carefully hand-made from steel wool. Despite the
material, they look incredibly delicate and velvety in appearance. Its surprisingly
touching to think that they will also be affected by changes in temperature
and the weather just as if they really were an integral part of the host plant.
They will eventually corrode, become brittle and finally fall from the tree.
The piece refers to the last vestiges of an industrial past as well as to
the cyclical processes of nature.
Cher Adeyinka. December 24, 2002
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