The Archive: November 2011

5 November – 17 December 2011

Preview Friday 4 November 6-9pm

Monday to Saturday 1.30 – 5.00pm

SLAM LAST FRIDAYS / Artist’s Talk: Friday 25 November 6 - 8pm

www.southlondonartmap.com

The Thing is the Thing

This exhibition brings together artists whose work reflects an idiosyncratic response to science and technology. Integral to the work are archetypal elements such as the formalist principles of modernism reflected in colour, geometry and pattern, and re-examined in the context of science, technology or architecture. Alongside are iconographic images of fictitious modernist structures, as well as culturally mediated and personal reinterpretations of images and objects from both science and science fiction.

Taking Frank Stella’s famous epigram ‘what you see is what you see’ as a starting point, the title references endgame strategies. Steeped in the zeitgeist of 1960s minimalism, Stella’s statement can be seen as reflecting the final throws of the prevailing ism-centric and linear history of modern art. In stark contrast, John Carpenter’s 1981 classic The Thing takes some of the paranoia more commonly associated with 50s B movies and relocates it to the edge of the world in an Antarctic research laboratory. The carnage that ensues is spectacular, stretching science fiction towards an apocalyptic gore-fest of special effects and obliterations – an endgame that may be less cerebral but is no less memorable.

The Works

The collection of objects allude to the existence of a once active social group or order. Planetary constellations, acicular patterns and archaic transmitters hark to an age of discovery. The worn and aged surfaces suggest a utility, proposing an involvement in a symbolic act or experiment. Although humble in appearance the works strive to make sense of their environment. Their titles appear to offer explanations to enlighten but their capacity to do so has diminished. The objects, now redundant, become symbolic totems for a quest to make sense of one’s existence.