Henry Krokatsis: Like a Gang of Virtue

About

FAS Contemporary is delighted to present an exhibition of new work by Henry Krokatsis. The works shown in ‘Like a Gang of Virtue' employ discarded bevelled mirrors, ubiquitous in ordinary English homes between the 1920s and the early 1960s and now consigned to junk shop fodder. Rescued from obscurity, these mirrors have been cut, joined and wall hung to create a complex delineated surface, diverting them, ostensibly by chance, into the realm of painting. Presented in this way we oscillate between looking into the mirror and looking at its surface. The mirror's neutral indifference disappears as one begins to compare the subtle material differences in their surfaces, much as one examines the formal qualities of a painting. Krokatsis manages to transform not just these objects' material nature but also their functionality and their status. Together with these mirror works lie an extraordinary apparition: a black rubber floor, its material absorbency of light working in obdurate rebellion against the mirrors' reflective surfaces. The pattern of the floor has been taken from the baroque interior of the Imperial Palace in Vienna; this complex parquet panel has then been hand-carved by Krokatsis to form an exaggerated wood grained pattern, putting one in mind of a German expressionist wood cut. Affixed by oversized hand made iron nails, these panels have been cast individually, by hand in rubber. The ghosting of this aristocratic accoutrement is, like the mirror works, both functional and subversive, similarly resisting easy classification. Krokatsis's liquification and reconfiguration of materials exposes the instability in how and where we choose to invest belief and value, whilst manifesting a quiet faith in the obsolete.