FRONTIN'
FIONA LUMBERS
8 JAN - 1 FEB
THURS - SUN 12-6 & BY APPT
The subjects of these new paintings are drawn from urban youth,
hip-hop culture. As the title suggests. it is the complex constructions of attitude and bravado in the subjects that provide the dynamic for this show. They are not synonymous with the 'bling-bling' stereotypes portrayed in mass media, but are young boys and girls who aspire to the 'Crystal quaffing' antics of their idols. The small watercolour paintings are mainly based on photographs taken over the summer of 2003, at various carnivals and parties, although some are from magazines and television.
While these figures may at times seem tentatively familiar, they are anonymous and all sources remain non specific. The glamour of these subjects is challenged by the fake labels on their clothes and the neutral backgrounds; but the paint itself, applied in disjointed patches of colour, also function to unsettle any presumed trajectory between the youth centre and MTV. Instead a welling-up of blind hope is tangible manifest as the paintings modestly coalesce around the form of a rude-boy or girl in their creative moment.
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RISING TIDES
ISABEL YOUNG
8 JAN - 1 FEB
THURS - SUN 12-6 & BY APPT
At a time when wilderness perhaps only exists in the deepest recesses of the ocean and in outer space, the work of Isabel Young focuses on our increasingly estranged relationship with nature, posing the question:
what is the contemporary landscape?
In our post-industrial world we have inherited a highly contrived landscape littered with manmade elements. Wading through the industrial scruffiness of our landscape, it appears that our environment tells us more about civilisation than nature. It may not be fair to describe our landscape as pure artifice, but neither can it be described as raw nature.
Above all, Young's work explores the age old conflict between nature and civilisation. It speaks of the human desire to impose order on the earth while reminding us that we are not exempt from the laws of nature. We are reminded also of the temporary quality of all manmade entities, and the ability of nature to creep in and reclaim its territory wherever, and whenever, it desires.
Young's uninhabited environments make us aware of the lethal power of nature. Threatening skies hover over the ruins of robust concrete buildings that appear to have been designed in an attempt to withstand catastrophe. They draw us into a world, with remnants from our own, that is now ruled by nature. In these degenerated environments, life springs up around construction, slowly burying our world beneath water and undergrowth.
We forget that our survival is dependant on nature and tend to believe that nature exists to serve humanity. These paintings present the terrifying prospect that nature is ultimately stronger than we are. We are faced with the grim assurance of nature's supreme indifference to mankind.
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GIRL
ON
GIRL
AT
TRANSITION GALLERY |
