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Decomposition
Soup
Contemporary Urban Centre, Greenland Street
20th - 30th August 2009
Reviewed by
If ever there was a theme designed to get the best out of artists, it
is how they respond to their immediate environment. After all, this is
part of their essential task - to interact with their surroundings and
bring ideas and feelings together to create something new for the appreciation
of others. Unfortunately, some members of the Soup collective - which
is comprised of Tate Liverpool employees - failed to do precisely this,
focusing far too much on subtleties of form and technique to truly engage
with the concept or the gallerygoer. Matters certainly weren't helped
by Anna Hamilton's 'A Life Of Their Own' video, which blasted a twelve
bar loop of 1920s-style jazz through the space, and which made concentration
annoyingly difficult.
Nevertheless, there was enough good stuff on show to make a visit to
the Contemporary Urban Centre a rewarding experience. Roz Vallejo's collages
'Untitled, 2007' and 'Woman In Doorway' are interesting, but her laserprint
'Unintended' is something else, as spectral figures suggest romance and
yet distortion.
Rachel Harding's creations deal with the subject matter of environment
in a highly symbolic way, with extremely impressive results. 'Escape'
is an oil on canvas painting or a bird, which is itself placed in a cage.
This raises notions of isolation and repression, repression that seems
to preclude the possibility of interaction, except through song - the
caged bird's own 'art'. 'Lady Haversham's Bouquet' is another oil on canvas
piece, this time of a bunch of flowers, which seems to be shedding petals
on the floor (aren't we all?). The character of Miss Havisham from Great
Expectations is brought to mind, with all her atrophy.
Jacqueline F Kerr's acrylic work shows an inspirational amount of vivacity
and imagination, bringing the potentially dry area of map-making to glorious
life. Mixing real life city plans with fantastical ones and pleasing colours,
Kerr suggests that another world truly is possible.
Finally, Ruth Edwards' 'Duke Street' is an effective look at her environment
- specifically during her walk to work each morning. Having noticed the
"peeling paintworks", graffiti and "dilapidated fixtures"
of the street, she brings it to artistic life by applying acrylic paint
to polystyrene and mixed media. The rendering of this - a street that
mixes decaying industrial Liverpool with its shiny 'regenerated' façade
- says more in a few square metres than many entire exhibitions.
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