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C102
review
Belfast:
Perspective 2002 at Ormeau Baths
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Leo
Fitzmaurice: Frieze Names (issue 66), folded
advertisements
from Frieze magazine (note that in the
magazine, CIRCA 103, we accidentally published
an image of a different work)
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The
premise of the Ormeau Baths Gallery's annual Perspective
exhibition should be familiar to most readers by now. A call
for submissions is made, the many apply, few are selected
and one leaves £6000 richer. It's as simple as that and in
its fifth year the selectors have finally conceded to it,
foregoing the exercise of attempting to herd together the
final seventeen artists into a thinly constructed frame of
reference within which to view the overall selection. The
accompanying catalogue omits the customary selector's essay,
prime suspect in the aforementioned herding, and instead gives
the visitor a simple looseleaf collection of images in poster
format. 'Simple' always sounds like it forgot to tie its shoelaces,
but taking in the means and methods employed in Perspective
the work on show seems to be its smarter, talented, much
more likeable cousin.
Leo
Fitzmaurice's Frieze Names (issue 66) displays the
artists' names cut from that magazine's exhibition adverts,
folded over as if they were corporate desk signs to be treasured
and coveted in a cut-throat climb to the top of the company
where biggest (Bank) is best and smallest (too many to mention)
needs to buck up its ideas or they'll be out on their ear.
Hilarious at first, when one considers the amount of space
and ultimately money given over to exhibition adverts in some
of the big-name arts magazines, the laughter palls and the
names on the table start to seem much more vulnerable, consigned
to a status by the square inch. Further along the wall Fitzmaurice's
Can spectrumÍflips Warhol's eulogy to Coca Cola - "Liz
Taylor drinks Coke...you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a
Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than
the one the bum on the corner is drinking."1
The sun-bleached cans, dirt still stuck to the rim, call to
mind the fading glamour of the Hollywood queen (dream) whilst
the 'bum' smirks, figuring he had nothing to lose in the first
place.
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Kevin
Murphy, Mick, Lucy, Andy Warhol
and the Velvet Underground, drawing;
courtesy Ormeau Baths Gallery
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Kevin
Murphy's Mick, Lucy, Andy Warhol and The Velvet Underground
operates somewhere between the life room and the lifestyle
magazine. Eleven well executed drawings shown in a narrative
sequence introduce us to the aforementioned Mick and Lucy,
all loose-fit street wear and Birkenstock sandals. They pore
over a vinyl copy (original?) of that most archetypal art-rock
record, The Velvet Underground and Nico. Little else
seems to happen; they never play it because there's nothing
to play it on and only a chair occupies the otherwise empty
space they seem to inhabit. Mick holds the vinyl long-player
carefully in his hands, reading the grooves of each track
whilst Lucy examines the sleeve notes and cover artwork. The
LP in question has recently been reissued (again) on CD; bonus
tracks and a mono version augment its once lean form. Do Mick
and Lucy yearn for the unspoilt simplicity of the original,
or are they trying to find new details or snippets of information
with which to add to their appreciation, welcoming the addition
of a little-heard b-side or studio out-take?
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Ellie
Rees, Art must be beautiful, video still;
courtesy Ormeau Baths Gallery
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Elsewhere
in the gallery Ellie Rees' hysterical All by myself video
warbles desperately at its own insecurities, Art must be
beautiful combs its hair in tribute to Marina Abramovic,
whilst her Britney video gives the princess of pop
a serious run for her money, entertaining the viewer by playing
out Hit me baby on bottles filled with water.
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Ursula
Burke: Mr & Mrs Burke, photographic
image reproduced
in free community newspaper, Belfast
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Ursula
Burke provides one of only two public works to be included
in this year's selection. For Mr & Mrs Burke the
artist has taken a portrait of her parents in their back garden
and had it printed in a free community newspaper and distributed
throughout Belfast, questioning traditional notions of portraiture
as status symbol, and art as property of the wealthy.
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Andrew
McDonald, animated drawings;
courtesy Ormeau Baths Gallery
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The
prize winner this year was Andrew McDonald for his exploration
of hidden psycho-sexual meaning in his unheimlich animated
drawings.
Perspective
2002, Ormeau Baths Gallery, September/October 2002.
Allan
Hughes is an artist and committee member of Factotum,
based in Belfast.
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