C106
review
Belfast:
Perspective 2003 at Ormeau Baths
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Giuseppina
Esposito: installation shot, Perspective 2003;
courtesy Ormeau Baths Gallery/Tonic Design
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In
1982 I was taken to The Scottish Experience
in Edinburgh. It was a tourist resource where one could
learn all about the geography and cultural history of
that particular part of Britain. First the audience were
treated to a slide show with dramatic voiceover going
from the volcanic origins of Scotland right through to
contemporary socio-political developments. Then you'd
move to the main attraction: a large relief model, around
which one could listen to snippets of local history through
headphones plugged in to the diorama. The way out led
through a shop where tartan-bonneted gonks, heather-scented
bath sponges and other mementoes of the trip could be
purchased. All of this took place in an atmospherically
low-lit space reminiscent of the rocks-and-minerals part
of a natural history museum.
On entering
Perspective 2003 this formative experience
of exhibition viewing drew me to the darker and cosier
parts of the gallery where the possibility of a similar
multimedia vision awaited. Su Rynard's Bug girl
and a video triptych by Giuseppina Esposito rewarded my
expectation with works that emanated similar comforting,
mildly hypnagogic qualities. Of the two Rynard's Bug
girl seemed more at ease with the popular nature of
film, presenting a psychedelic narrative of communally
remembered children's TV shows. Esposito chose to emphasize
the problem of re-staging experiences of the landscape
by using the incidental chatter from the shoot as an aural
foil to the beauty of the images. The pieces both showed
an awareness of the medium; though between the dimly lit
spaces, comfy beanbags and essentially seductive videoscapes
there was a sense of the artificiality of the AV presentations
visited twenty years ago.
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Sue
Rynard: Bug girl, installation shot, Perspective
2003; courtesy Ormeau Baths Gallery/Tonic
Design
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Upstairs
and Oliver Comerford introduced an element of anxiety
to the environmental analysis present in the chambers
beneath. Of his paintings Comerford stated, 'the theme
of isolation and separation is pronounced." One could
say those attributes are a given for the medium in general
rather than particular to his subject matter. Cristophe
Neumann's sculpture echoed Esposito's time-lapse video
in that it "...[is] a work that is at once visually attractive
yet involves difficult issues..." The difficult issues
in Esposito's work is the desire to represent an experience
of nature; Neumann was referring to the destructive properties
of his medium on the natural environment. At least the
artist was cautious in the rest of his statement, stressing
that Filter references ecological problems "...the
world is currently addressing..." rather than suggesting
the work itself made us address them. On out and Jaye
Rhees' lo-fi dioramas formed a nod to the papier-māché
relief map in The Scottish Experience.
As an open-submission
exhibition Perspective is reliant on the unpredictable
quality of its applicants and, more crucially, the agendas
of those selecting from them for its success. Perspective
2003 fell short of a good representation of contemporary
ideas, with weary ruminations on media influence and the
landscape forming much of the show. Moving on, I am continuing
the time travel backwards to the predecessor of the multimedia
tourist resource and contemporary art gallery: Maysfield
Leisure Centre for a dip.
Duncan
Ross is a cartoonist based in Belfast.
Perspective
2003, Ormeau Baths Gallery, September - October
2003
