IVAN SEAL – IN HERE STANDS IT

Posted on 2012-10-15

Ostensibly working within the tradition of the still life, Seal’s small-scale paintings complicate orthodox depictions of the inanimate objects with which we surround ourselves. His body of work constitutes a lexicon of sorts, a vocabulary of matter brought to life. At Spike Island, the paintings are shown alongside computer-generated sound works, whose structure and rhythm are akin to the flow of canvases on the gallery wall.

Seal’s subjects sit in shallow, ambiguous spaces often demarcated only by a gradual shift in colour or shade, or a simple horizon line. These settings often share their colouration with the objects they contain, suggesting a non-natural light source, while in others the objects clash dramatically with their lurid backdrops. Though recognisably of this world, Seal’s subjects are painted quickly from memory, and as such represent less the depicted object and more the unstable, psychologically-inflected territory within our minds.

Sculptural qualities, such as weight and gravity, are undermined by the ambiguity of the space and the materiality of the paint itself, which shifts in successive works from thickly layered crusts to thin washes of colour. Much of the pleasure of this work derives from the physicality of the paint on the surface and the sense this carries of the work’s rapid execution.

Exhibition runs through to December 9th, 2012

Spike Island
133 Cumberland Road
Bristol
BS1 6UX

www.spikeisland.org.uk

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DORMICE – PRINCIPLE 54

Posted on 2012-10-15

‘Principle 54’ is the first time Dormice have exhibited the paintings that the pair have kept for themselves rather than distribute through galleries. Dormice’s paintings are heavily influenced by the international style media and often use its high-impact cover pictures for inspiration, contrasting these images’ own augmented reality with dreamlike background vistas. In other instances Dormice transpose the sybaritic visual language of 21st century lifestyle photography into their own adaptations of iconic paintings, such as Manet’s Olympia and Déjuner sur L’Herbe. “It is intended as if Manet, for example, were alive and painting these pictures today,” says one half of Dormice, Heinrich Nicolaus. The artists’ contemporary contrasts are arresting to say the least, ret-conning the historical shock value of the original paintings.

The exhibition’s title ‘Principle 54’ refers to a clause in the artists’ own working charter. “Our ‘principle 54’ states that we should do the opposite of what we are ‘supposed to do, going against the flow, stealing from other artists and directly including their work in ours,” says Heinrich. By glorifying high fashion and the commodification of the female body, or comparing modern pornography to the erotic work of master painters, Dormice provoke the more priggish elements of the metropolitan art scene. Equally, they provide a red-blooded celebration of contemporary living. “We are just here, like animals, living the moment,” say Dormice of their work and their process which they compare with making music: spontaneous and joyful but with grooves and melodies that are not only designed to appeal, but also form idiosyncratic and memorable compositions.

Exhibition runs through to November 3rd, 2012

The Outsiders
8 Greek Street
Soho
London
W1D 4DG

www.theoutsiders.net

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