Perfect Crimes

About

“…Luckily the objects that appear to us have always already disappeared. Happily , nothing appears to us in real time, any more than the stars in the night sky. If the speed of light were infinite, all the stars in the universe would be here at once — in real time — and the vault of the sky would be of an unbearable incandescence. No more night — perpetual day. Happily nothing takes place in real time, otherwise we would be subjected, through information, to the light of all events, and the present would be of an unbearable incandescence. Happily we live in the mode of a vital illusion, in the mode of an absence, of an irreality, a non-immediacy of things. Happily all things, the world and others, come to us definitively altered. Happily nothing is instantaneous, nor simultaneous, nor contemporaneous. Happily reality doesn’t take place. Thankfully the crime is never perfect.”

JEAN BAUDRILLARD - PAROXYSM: THE PERFECT CRIME .

ASSOCIATION FRANÇAISE D’ACTION ARTISTIQUE, 1993

‘ Perfect Crimes’ , the inaugural exhibition of  flutter_ , presents  the collaborative work of two artists experimenting  with different mediums : one with assemblage /sculpture, the other with printmaking, translated through a series of installations , where both practices seem to merge.

Departing from the concept of art as the perfect crime, as described by Braudillard ( with no criminal, no victim or motive ) , both artists delve in the representation of textural incidents , accidents and paradoxes between natural & man made forms and materials.

Each ‘’combine’’  is achieved by  juxtapositions and layering , both formally and conceptually.

To reveal and to conceal  , is here used as a strategy to bring apparently disparate  parts ,  into one possible ‘cohesive’ whole. The resulting work emanates  the ambiguity of clues,   their openness to  multiple interpretations, thus embracing the creative potential of  fragments, residues and  traces as activators of  ‘other’ artistic languages and  meanings.

Paiva’s sculptures reference  the structural qualities of  unfinished architectural forms , somewhat  echoing  the former use of the physical space itself (Grange Walk Studios were formerly the Southwark Social Services, currently also in line for further housing developments ) . There is a  hint of  human presence in Paiva’s work  and an intemporality (a time without time) , reflected both on the choice of  scale and materials employed. 

Geoff’s prints , belong to a series inspired by  geographical references ( maps, shorelines, floorscapes, etc) brought together through the combination of lithography and woodcut ,  exploring  the intrinsic  qualities of these techniques and materials  on a varied range of hand made Japanese papers.

Rather than a symbiosis , this collaboration aims to instil a revitalization on  each artist individual work, by exchange and perme(di)ation. The pieces on show, when ‘disassembled’, ultimately retain their own individuality

 The resulting  exhibition is a non-linear narrative of hypothetical ‘ perfect crimes‘ , unfolding  a sequence of fictitious territories and frozen incidents , where both artists practices are brought together either by contrast or similarity.