MONDAY MONDAY EVENT, Saturday 16th October, 6pm until late. Pay bar/ Music/ BBQ
From the vantage point of our current conservative climate, the 1960s and 70s are a watershed moment, one that marks the last time our culture believed unreservedly in immediate change as a real possibility. Instead the 21st century maybe left with a community of hopeful, sometimes reminiscent, thinkers or dreamers who settle for creative misbehaviour. "Monday, Monday" 1967 written by John Phillips and recorded by ‘The Mamas and The Papas’ aspires to the myth of the 'Californian dream' that looms large in the modern psyche harking back to the vast crowds of protesters and festival–goers marking a period of social and political upheaval. The title of the exhibition was an initial source for ideas of conjuncture and association. 'Monday Monday' a hit at the same time that the ground-breaking group sculpture show 'Primary Structures' opened in New York is not really the basis of the show, but an important starting point, which led to a wider discussion about sculpture making and post-relational approaches, where associations could be drawn out and develop an exciting interplay. Sentiments here are not dissimilar from the song, which is characterised as ‘Sunshine Pop’ by its cheerful attitude, harmonic singing and sophisticated production and seen as a form of escapism from the turmoil of the times. However the steady drone of relentless cheerfulness has subdued undertones and the song reflects moments of real sadness and anxiety. With or without a political backdrop or agenda a type of counter-culturalism is celebrated and mourned here. The 'unacceptability' of any countercultural expression is always short-lived. Sooner or later avant-garde aesthetics are embraced by the producers and consumers of mainstream culture and absorbed into the ‘normal’. Artists in this exhibition expand on the faded tones of cultural optimism and its freestyle emergence of ideas. Sleek, transcendental forms derived from ‘New Generation’ abstraction, are juxtaposed and contrasted with the hand rendered qualities of self-publication and sculptural assemblage.
Noah Sherwood chooses potentially inert material, from studio debris to found objects and industrial ready-mades to make his work. His manipulation techniques involve an intense process of transformation to develop complex sculptural and architectural freestanding forms. Taut and geometrically developed, these new works are not super-structures but resemble shelters, canopies and kites, choosing the low-tech building aesthetics closer to the alternative architecture projects of counter-communities in Central America. As propositions, they also offer a humorous and imaginative approach to public sculpture projects and architectural models. Sherwood’s forms are not fixed, hinting at a keen interest in collage and assemblage and of wider perceptual and phenomenological concerns about the nature of space and objects.
Noah Sherwood graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2002. He was included in ‘EAST END ACADEMY’, Whitechapel Gallery, London in 2004, ‘London in Zurich’, Hauser & Wirth Zurich, curated by Gregor Muir in 2005, and ‘Hopes and Dragonflies’, MONITOR Rome in 2006. Recent exhibitions include ‘Left to my own Devices’ at Bernhard Knaus Fine Art Frankfurt in 2008 and ‘195 Miles/We all Have our Limits’ a PSL Leeds and Whitechapel Gallery collaboration in 2009.
Glimpses and samples of Aztec sun worship, the occult, pagan ritual, Native American totem and folkloric decoration are present in the sculptural work of Steve Green as he plunders the belief systems of metaphysical shapes and objects. However, his use of sleek, highly polished acrylic and glossy petro-chemical colour, is loaded with the surface and design elements of the sign, freed from direct signification, to instead connote a more general mysticism. A resolution from the realms of ‘New Generation’ abstraction, of appropriated forms from abandoned minimalist trajectories. Green attempts to communicate without absolute, relying on an interpretation that objects hold certain transcendental properties to more receptive onlookers.
A 2003 graduate from The Slade School of Art MFA Steve Green exhibited in ‘Continuous Movement of ideas’, Gallarie Nicolas Silin, Paris, and ‘By chromed hooves it travels now’, The Russian Club, London in 2010. His work was included in ‘70 plus’, Volume Project space, London 2009 and ‘Nothing like something happens anywhere’, Rum 26, Gothenburg, 2008
Justin Eagle’s methods pose questions about process and display. His multifarious assemblages in two and three dimensions borrow the visual language from graphic iconography and reprographic imagery. In past works 3 dimensional logo-like structures loosely suggest meaning by containing and highlighting the properties of recognisable signifiers. Silkscreen printed image and text are loosely interwoven with Sculptural mechanisms of display. For this exhibition Eagle will show a new series of printed silkscreen repeats, derived from scans of folded fabrics. Using mechanisms relating to minimal systems of picture making, the printed image slowly breaks down through each repeat’s tonal difference, highlighting the variation of nuance in the process. Using reduction by the most incidental of means, these prints scale up the shifts made from their hand rendered production.
Justin Eagle graduated from the Royal College of Art, Sculpture in 2004. Recent Exhibitions include; ‘The milkplus bar’, Josh Lilley, London 2010, Twig, Vitrine Gallery, London 2010, A solitary cosmopolitan, Arena Gallery, Liverpool, 2010. His work was included in ‘The Coelacanth Journal Issue3’ The Moderns Launch: Donlon Books 2009.
Potency, energy, and transformation are themes which underly Warren McLachlan’s practice. Harnessing the potential energy found in various collected materials, McLachlan’s work intends to establish links between the social, transcendental, and ethereal. A preoccupation with introspective activities such as smoking, drinking, gaming, and music provide the material and experiential considerations for his recent work. The paraphernalia of these social activities is rearranged and re systematised, hoping to offer alternative states of play. His choice of tenuous material and a loose assemblage of apparatus leads to a kind of closet enthusiasm for home-brewed technologies, such as developing a Crystal set radio to innovatively harness radio waves by the simplest of means. A new work ‘Skylark (double bill)’ takes it’s form from a Drive-In cinema screen constructed from pieced together cigarette package foil which operates as an antenna for McLachlan’s own crystal set radio. This transference of energy captures atmospheric static, picking out a range of pirate and commercial broadcasts as the temporality of the airwaves provide the soundtrack for the silver screen. The works scratchy, vibratory sound projects the work’s raw aspiration and its inherent helplessness.
Warren McLachlan Graduated from Chelsea College of Art MA Fine Art in 2007. Recent exhibitions include ‘Remnant Island’, Hooverville Projects, London, 2010, ‘Stand Up’, Cul De Sac, London, 2010 and ‘The Disconcerted Concert Party’, Elevator Gallery, London, 2010.