Neil Clements - Bad History

About

Continuing a long- term investigation into the sustainability of minimal abstraction, Clement's process recontextualises formalist artmaking of the 1960's and 70's with contemporary and historical forms of cultural production.

Bad History positions itself at an impasse seen in abstraction, where a conventional model of authorship remains despite its perceived dissolution through the employment of anonymous and immaculate forms. The functionality of such a premise could be seen to rely upon an artist's name being indexically linked to their favoured materials, in a manner that excludes any further development by other individuals.

Clements seeks to complicate this position further by subjectively linking two Californian sources: Finish Fetish sculpture and the emergence of hacker culture in Berkeley in the early 1970's. The association of Finish Fetish sculpture; an activity inherently tied to technologically advanced methods of production, to hacking; an ideology that privileges collective progress over individual accomplishment, is to produce an alternative reading of the authoritative stance that accompanies reductive abstraction.

This approach owes much to George Kubler's description of history as a palpable shape formed between objects and situations. The strengths of such a strategy should be seen not through the veracity of the connections made but rather their value in establishing a discursive interpretation.

Exhibition supported by the Elephant Trust and Hope Scott Trust