Transient Space at Parafin and other September Travels
16th September 2017
I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not the best way to see art, but I can’t seem to break the habit. These marathon visits are always full off delight— the unexpected, the transforming, the groundbreaking. I’m constantly surprised by galleries I had never heard of, learning new things. I’ve seen how the most promising exhibitions can fall flat and the most inconspicuous can be outstanding.
As soon as I found out that I needed to head down to South London to see the Jerwood Drawing Prize for this is tomorrow, I felt that familiar call of the marathon. With the prospect of a whole Saturday ahead of me to gallery hop, it was practically inevitable.
Two exhibitions sprung immediately to mind. I has been wanting to see the group show at Parafin Gallery, “Transient Space,” since it had opened weeks ago. I also knew that DRAF had just opened the last show in their Camden space and that felt like something that shouldn’t be missed.
I wrote a full review of the Jerwood Drawing Prize over here, so I won’t bore you with repetitions today. Suffice it to say— go see it. It’s definitely worth your time.
Instead, I’m going to focus on “Transient Space.” I’ll say straight away that I’ve always been a fan of Parafin, and I always make a point to go out of my way to see their shows. While I’m not familiar with their entire roaster, they represent a lot of artists that I love, and I’ve found that they have a sensibility that really speaks to me.
Instead, I’m going to focus on “Transient Space.” I’ll say straight away that I’ve always been a fan of Parafin, and I always make a point to go out of my way to see their shows. While I’m not familiar with their entire roaster, they represent a lot of artists that I love, and I’ve found that they have a sensibility that really speaks to me.
‘Transient Space,’ of course, was no exception. A group show comprising of artists who respond to urban space, the exhibition includes the work of five artists displayed over the gallery’s two levels. There’s photography, painting, collage, sculpture and video art all centring around how we experience cities and how it influences our daily lives. As soon as I walked into the gallery, I was immediately hooked by Tim Head’s photography. Dating from the early 1980’s and never before shown, the series ‘Fugitive Space’ are photographs of familiar city spaces: parking garages, office buildings, hotel lobbies. Tinted and mirrored, Head renders them strange and undefined. They’re ‘non-places,’ empty of life and entirely uncanny. They’re eerie reflections, a questioning of the places that make up the reality of contemporary life. 
These spaces are used to great end by Melaine Manchot. In her three part video installation, ‘Tracer,’ installed over the two floors of the gallery, she populates these liminal spaces in surprising, alternative ways. Playing with the consistent reality of surveillance in daily life, she records people interacting with the urban environment. In one video, a group of people run through a motorway exit, weaving around and leaping over the barriers of the overpass. There is an unmistakable tension, even as the road is deserted. In another video, a man stands on the centre portion of a cantilever bridge, turned to the side to allow ships to pass. As the bridge rotates, he runs and climbs, using the structure like some kind of treadmill. They’re enthralling scenes— witnessing these people interacting with ordinary places in such usual, almost taboo ways, you’re left to reconsider these spaces anew, entertain new possibilities of new ways of life. 
Abigail Reynolds’ series ‘The Universal Now’ has a similar knack for repositioning the familiar. Sculptural, three-dimensional collages created using archival images from books, atlases, tourist guides and encyclopaedia, Reyonds folds and melds views of the same buildings and civic spaces from different periods. An image of St Pauls from 1923 meets a of it photograph published in 1973. The layers of time are shown visibly, questioning how we definite a city, showing us what experiences are shared— what has always been there and what has changed. In her assemblages, Reynold’s takes the familiar landscape and shows us how our experience of it has been mediated, makes us reconsider our presumptions.
All together, it was a truly brilliant exhibition. I only regret that I didn’t catch it until the last day. It’s one that would’ve been worth returning to again. In its close questioning of city life, it has strong roots in Debord and Baudelaire, but it never lets the philosophy get in the way of the art. Through several approaches and many methods, it brings into clear focus how much we take for granted. How we pass through the urban landscape without thought, taking it as given and timeless.
I was sadly less impressed by DRAF’s exhibition, “(X) A Fantasy.” I had really warmed to the last exhibition I had seen there, “Greater Than the Sum,” so I stood in the galleries of their Camden space for ages, hoping that a sudden clear realisation would strike me, bringing the strange installations together. So many artists I liked were included after all— Theaster Gates, Dahn Vo, Wolfgang Tilmans. How could it do so little for me?
The gallery handout states that the exhibition is meant to question when individual experience becomes political statement, exploring the boundary between private and personal, tracing how individual engagement can render the political personal. Don’t get me wrong— many of the individual pieces in the exhibition hit this mark for me. On the whole, however, that political message seemed to get lost in the flamboyant, overly wrought installations. I don’t regret seeing it for a second— the fact that DRAF is leaving London is well worth commemorating— but I left the space feeling uninspired and bored.
I was lucky enough to spend the remainder of my September in sunny Spain, so I don’t have too much else to report today! Outside of the big cities in the North, there wasn’t much of a modern art scene for me to sink my teeth into. I had to make do with tapas, gelato, and bottles of red wine. Unable to go cold turkey, however, I did make sure to take a morning to visit the CaixaForum in Girona and the Bolit Centre for Contemporary Art. I was especially impressed with the later. Situated right on the river on the main tourist drag, the small exhibition space was showing “Jerusalem ID,” a project by Mapasonor + Domènec. Through a series of videos, the pair explore how violence is felt in daily life, calling attention to the injustices that effect the Palestinian population. From urban planning to straightforward exploration, the project gives voice to the population directly. It was a delight to find such a well considered, sophisticated exhibition in a small city, and should I ever find myself back in Girona, I know that the Bolit will be top of my list.
That’s about it for September, but with Frieze around the corner, it won’t be long before you’ll hear from me again. My schedule for the next three weeks is full to the brim! I’ll just need to wait until the dust settles, and I can find a moment to sit down to write with a huge mug of tea…
See you on the other side.
0 comments:
Post a Comment