It's not a coincidence that I've felt a strong sense of nostalgia trawling through the galleries of London's east end. My last visit to the city was during overseas studies at Goldsmiths, where each weekend, a group of us would highlight our favourite exhibtions in the "artupdate.com/london" guides and take away as much promotional materials the gallery staff would allow us. Many of the prominent east end dealers are still in full swing, including influential Vilma Gold (vilmagold.com) and publically funded Chisenhale Gallery (chisenhale.org.uk) near Victoria Park.
This past weekend, we made several stops along the Vyner St gallery district, where younger galleries have been showing some exciting work. Last year, during Art Basel Miami, I noted the container sound installation (see previous blog entry) by duo Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard as one of the strongest projects at the fair. At Kate Macgarry gallery, their current solo exhibtion re-examines an early Vito Aconcci work, where a spurned lover traipses back and forth outside of her ex's flat. Colourful and profane, the piece "Walking Over Acconci (Misdirected Approaches)" combines strategies of conceptual video art (acknowledging its often dense visual sensibilities) with the flavour of popular music videos. The gallery's tight artist stable also includes collaborative group, Chicks on Speed, Turner-prize nominee Goshka Macuga, and they have also exhibted NZ's own Francis Upritchard.
Just down the street at Nettie Horn, sculptor Debbie Lawson, shows an amazing range of household plants and objects completely wrapped in kitschy Persian rugs. The sensual textural covering brings to mind Meret Oppenheim's famous fur-covered teacup and saucer. Lawson's pieces are arranged in an installation throughout the gallery space, with other cut-out pieces of the rugs hung like decorative pelts. See images below:
The final highlight is brought to us by artist Robert Currie at VINEspace. His installation of furling videotapes references architectural drawings and expertly transforms the shimmery strips into 3-dimensional pencil lines. The hard edges of the lines beautifully waterfall into soft curls on the floor.