Von zufalligen linien und rottlichen flecken (Accidental lines and red splashes)

Liverpool School of Art & Design, Hope Street
July 9th - 21st

Reviewed by E. Hughes

The Blurb as I go in reads: “Liverpool School of Art and ‘Eight Days a Week’ presents ‘Von zufalligen linien und rottlichen flecken’, and I have to agree with them entirely.

It is part of a cultural exchange between Liverpool and Cologne, by a group of German artists called Georg Gartz, Veronika Moos, Tine Wille and Michael Wittasek.

I am not overly impressed with the modern-style paintings I first come to; they remind me of when I helped my parents pull old wallpaper from the wall when decorating, to reveal various bits of paper going back through the generations! I’m sure they must mean something though. However, any new style seeping into the consciousness of human beings can take time.

Moving on, there are see-through pictures of what looks like wrapped cellophane in all sorts of interesting patterns, and casting different shadows. These are far more interesting to me, and certainly unusual and different.

The rest of the pictures are curious scribbles, like the sort of things kids paint in primary school. They are like dreams, or works of genius that have lain, unfinished and neglected, only to be gathered up at some time and put on display. The exhibition on the whole has a curious feel to it, I would say like many such exhibitions; inviting but sterile, interesting but not engaging, curious but take-it-or-leave-it.

I must add that one of my colleagues was very impressed with the exhibition, and rather than recanting what I have said, The artists who have displayed their work here are obviously motivated in letting the world see their work, and much of the work does have style and artistic merit, even if I personally am not that taken with it.

The piece de resistance are three silken oblongs of material, in three different colours, with scribble plant-like designs, hanging in the middle of the room. I truly think its all a bit, well, not that interesting to be honest, and I am not being intentionally cruel or funny, just honest. Equally, this is my personal opinion and I wish not to hurt anyone’s feelings; we all must do what feels right, and hopefully what moves us, and helps us move on to a better place. The only things that really interest me are two glass tables by the door, full of Liverpool and Cologne memorabilia, and blurbs advertising the exhibition. Perhaps I am not in the best of moods, but I wonder when a group of artists will create something that is as vital as it is interesting, that has impact but also lasting appeal. I am not a snob, but I prefer the old schools of painters and sculptors, when paintings where paintings, and sculptures were sculptures, and you could buy a ha’porth of chips, well, for a halfpenny.

My last word is that all cultural exchange is a good thing, if we can see how they live over there, and they can see how we live over here.