Issue 118, Winter 2006 - Dublin - Plane - RHA - July, August 2006.
Circa 118: Review  | | Karl Burke: Alter installation shot, Plane, 2006; courtesy Mark Garry | Plane , a group exhibition curated by Mark Garry, is the fourth in a series of Artists curate exhibitions at the Royal Hibernian Academy. As an artist who has steadily developed his curatorial practice alongside his artistic one, Garry has thus been given an opportunity to stage a large-scale show that consolidates ideas and interests he has been developing for some time. Featuring eight Irish-based practices, Plane is a strong instalment in the Artists curate series. While there are undoubtedly those who will question the merits of artists ‘crossing over’ into curation, this exhibition demonstrates that artists acting as curators can often display a deep sensitivity towards and understanding of other practices. Garry selected A = Apple, Karl Burke, Nina Canell & Robin Watkins, Robert Carr, Paul McKinley, Christophe Neumann, Jennifer Phelan and Martha Quinn, a group of artists working in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, sound and installation. While the individual qualities of each artist are highlighted, there are many subtle links and crossovers between their diverse approaches and, indeed, with Garry’s own artistic practice. By placing them together, a rich frame of reference emerges, with the works interacting with each other, the space and the viewer. Perhaps what links them all, and what seems to interest Garry in particular, is their preoccupation with materials: the use of materials, the appreciation of materials, and how they transform and are transformed by their surroundings. Many of the artists use simple, everyday materials, which they reconfigure, recreate or push to their very limits. They also demonstrate a work manlike dedication and a painstaking attention to detail. Interestingly, in interviews with the artists featured in the catalogue, some mention the idea of beauty. These artists embrace beauty, but in an unostentatious, nonseductive manner – it is an appreciation of the inherent beauty of materials. The recycling or reconfiguration of objects is of prime importance for Canell & Watkins. They create custom-built entities and sounds from outdated, discarded objects and simple materials. There is no attempt to hide the means of their creation – the wires, the plugs, the parts. This making anew has a hopeful, almost idealistic flavour: “We often aim to set up situations in which [found objects] form a new entity or organism – a functioning system – which hopefully can become part of the world again.” The evocative installation Sea chant 06 is an ambitious example of their approach. In a darkened corner of the gallery, a piece of tarpaulin is stretched into a sail-like shape. It is shielding a Styrofoam screen onto which a super-8 film is projected. The grainy film depicts a group of individuals standing on a windswept hill. Each is holding what looks like a circular ball of light, which they shake in unison to create a mesmeric percussion-type sound. Meanwhile, on the other side of the tarpaulin is an old record player on which a circular plate of metal is spinning. The surface of the metal has small scratches, bits of string and a seemingly haphazard piece of sellotape stuck onto it. When the needle of the record passes over these grooves and bumps, it creates a sound that somehow, miraculously, mimics stormy weather. Christophe Neumann also utilises everyday materials. In the case of Filter , it is the bottom half of empty plastic bottles – essentially recyclable rubbish. But in his hands they are joined together and stacked up in layers to become a floating, translucent sculpture. Again, there is no attempt to disguise what they are – the remains of labels are still visible and the colours are mismatched – and yet, these bottles have been transformed. Likewise, Robert Carr’s sculpture is made of the cheapest, simplest of materials – black and white paper – although it is based on complex mathematical calculations and a computer-designed 3D model. The sculpture is constructed in a similar way to corrugated card, with sheets of paper separated by small triangles and built up layer upon layer. However, he exploits the potential of paper to such a degree that the end result transcends the humble medium. Hanging suspended from the ceiling, it is a delicate, almost precious structure, but at the same time it has a rough, handmade finish. As the viewer moves around the work, its form is constantly changing. From one perspective, dramatic spiral shapes curve in and out in a complex pattern; from another viewpoint it dematerialises to almost nothing. Jennifer Phelan also explores the physical properties of paper. While mark making is of importance, the simple sheets she uses take on a sculptural form as well. Hanging against the wall is a wide, floor-to-ceiling strip of burnished orange paper. A delicate leaf-like design has been scraped onto it, with pieces of the outer layer of the sheet curling away from the page like leaves. Meanwhile, placed at seemingly arbitrary intervals on the floor are small stacks of cerise-coloured paper, the centres of which have been cut out into semiorganic abstract shapes. Karl Burke’s chosen medium is minimalist planks of wood. Burke works with other media, including music, but whatever medium he adopts, the interventions within a particular space and the participation of the viewer are crucial. Alter comprises a row of planks propped up against the skirting board. Evenly spaced and delicately balanced, they draw attention to the architecture of the space: the empty wall they lean against, the floor they hover above. Martha Quinn also uses simple building blocks of natural material. Long rectangular strips of limestone have been stacked up to create a cube that is at once dense and airy. From some perspectives it seems solid and impermeable; from others, gaps allow you to look right through it. Like Carr’s sculpture, there is a mathematical order to its construction, but it also exploits to its full potential the inherent qualities of stone. A photograph was the source for Paul McKinley’s richly textured oil painting, Park series no 10 . Its square format, however, distances it from its photographic source or traditional landscape painting, and there is something curious about the still scene, emptied of signs of life. McKinley has painstakingly built up dabs of paint, a method which stimulates the eye and draws attention to the physicality of the painting: from far away it is a startlingly naturalistic parkland scene with a reflective expanse of water; up close everything dissolves into blobs of colour. In a number of ways, Plane was a development and expansion of Borderline , an exhibition Garry curated at Four gallery which also featured McKinley and Carr, and in which music played an integral part. The integration of music stems from Garry’s interest in how different artforms can interact with each other. For Plane , A = Apple, a band comprising Garry himself, Burke and Nina Hynes, gave a performance and produced a record. Their multilayered sound, while richly meditative and melodious, is filled with unusual quirks brought about by unconventional instruments and sound-sources, creating a dynamic tension between the rehearsed and the improvised. With Plane , Garry has demonstrated his ability to draw out complex nuances in the work of a group of talented artists. As an artist-curator, Garry may leave his fingerprint, but his touch is light.  | | Cannel & Watkin: Plane , 2006, installation shot; courtesy Mark Garry | Eimear McKeith is visual-arts critic for the Sunday Tribune . Dublin - Plane - RHA -
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